“And in a pipe we fly to the Motherland Connor Lacey
Or sell love to another man Period 1
It’s too cold outside 9-12-13
For angels to fly
To fly, fly
For angels to fly, to fly, to fly
Or angels to die” –Ed Sheeran ‘The A Team’
Loneliness and Hope
What I remember of my uncle is tattoos and a Wonder Woman t-shirt. Only having met him once, he was such a stranger to me. A big part of why he didn’t visit us was his addiction to heroine but also because my parents never knew where he was. His life revolved around getting more drugs right up until he died of an overdose. My Uncle John was much more significant to my mom, he was her brother. After he passed away, she didn’t seem the same as before. She was sad and becoming more and more stressed, having to plan the service all by herself. I chose this song because it reminds me of my uncle. The A Team is about a girl who is slowly slipping into a deep addiction, she’s come to the point where day and night, every decision she makes is to get more heroine. Even though I was not around him, I imagine that this is similar to what happened to my uncle. In the song, he talks about it being too cold for the angels to fly. To me, this symbolizes the hopelessness of being all alone and feeling like there’s no one to help you, not even an angel. “And in a pipe we fly to the Motherland, or sell love to another man.” These lines tell about a girl (whomever Ed Sheeran is singing about) that has hit rock bottom, where everything she does is to get more drugs so she can fly again. This idea scares me a little bit and it’s tragic that not only did my uncle lose his life, but he went through some really difficult times Now I know that if I am ever in a situation that involves drug use I will remember what he went through and be reminded to make the right decision.
The day he died I was at my friend’s house. I will always remember the date because it is hard to forget, 11-11-11. My Uncle’s service wasn’t how I expected it to be. I don’t know how I imagined it would be but it didn’t feel like a funeral. Maybe it was the fact that it was the first funeral I’d ever been to or maybe it was because my grandma wasn’t there. She didn’t even go to her own son’s funeral. Evidently it was too hard for her to be there. I think we all wonder if maybe there was something we could have done, something to have saved him from his loneliness and given him hope.