My father loved things that sparkle. He was fascinated with the glittering things of this world. He kept telling me that I should wear sequins at my concerts, like Elvis Presley. My father always wanted to be rich. But in reality, he never had much money…probably because he was always giving it away. He reminds me of that beautiful verse in the Sermon on the Mount, where Jesus, speaking of our heavenly Father, says: “He maketh His sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust” (Matthew 5: 45). For my dad, it didn’t matter who needed it, or whether they deserved it or not; if he could help them, he would. That was his way.
I have not forgotten it. I like the way Ruth E. Renkel said it: “Sometimes the poorest man leaves his children the richest inheritance.”
My dad passed away in 1996, at the young age of 58, and went to be with the Man in the sun, so I wrote this song for him.