After Dad died, my husband and I started a new tradition. We buy a six-pack of Dad’s favorite beer on his birthday and watch the 1990 film Memphis Belle.
It’s no secret that Dad was a World War II aircraft enthusiast. He plowed through books about air battles and Spitfire planes and enjoyed pre-CGI films that utilized actual planes from the period. As a kid, I remember viewing Memphis Belle with him several times and it’s now one of my favorite feel-good movies.
Memphis Belle is a fictionalized account of a Flying Fortress bomber’s last mission: a bomb drop over Germany. The crew had successfully flown twenty-four missions and was required to do one more to complete their tour of duty. This relatively unknown film features an incredible ensemble cast: Matthew Modine, John Lithgow, David Strathairn, Billy Zane, Eric Stoltz, and Harry Connick, Jr. (who, on the soundtrack, sings a beautiful rendition of the ballad “Danny Boy”).
The pre-CGI effects are quite good, the tension is palpable, and rooting for a motley crew of young men with different hopes for the future is easy. Dad tried to explain the mechanics of the plane to me during one of our viewings, but I wasn’t having it and kept trying to shush him. The drama and human-interest story was that good.
Two days after Dad died, I found a YouTube video of the final scene where the crew has completed their mission and is about to return to their base airfield in England. Unfortunately, one of the wheels becomes stuck while being lowered and crew members must alternate working the hand crank to get it down before their engines die. It’s a nail-biting scene, even though you know it’ll end well. When that wheel clicks into place, the boys land to the swelling strains of an orchestral version of “Danny Boy.” I watched that video several times and thought of Dad soaring in a plane, then wrote down the lyrics to “Danny Boy” in my journal – lyrics that were especially poignant and appropriate at that time. And still are.
Oh, Danny boy, the pipes, the pipes are calling From glen to glen, and down the mountain side. The summer's gone, and all the roses falling, It's you, it's you must go and I must bide.
But come ye back when summer's in the meadow, Or when the valley's hushed and white with snow, It's I'll be here in sunshine or in shadow, Oh, Danny boy, oh Danny boy, I love you so!
But when ye come, and all the flowers are dying, If I am dead, as dead I well may be, You'll come and find the place where I am lying, And kneel and say an Ave there for me. And I shall hear, though soft you tread above me, And all my grave will warmer, sweeter be, For you will bend and tell me that you love me, And I shall sleep in peace until you come to me!