As I sat on the edge of the waterbed, the disc jockey for KSSN announced news that changed my world. Time stopped for a few minutes and I cried while sitting there on the edge of the bed. Keith Whitley was dead at the age of 33 years old from an apparent alcohol overdose.
Music has always been a huge part of our relationship. It started way back in high school as two best friends would sit and listen to Lionel Richie and Alabama, singing and laughing, bearing our teenage souls in the windowsill of Kelly’s dormer in her parents’ house on Coolhurst in Sherwood.
Life is better with close friends. They are there to lift you up when you are down. They are there to celebrate your successes. They are there to turn to for advice and there when you just want to veg out.
Some of you may be wondering where this Forevermost thing came from so we thought we’d share a little background. When we started dating, most of our conversations were from hundreds of miles apart as Steve was living in St. Louis and Kelly was in Little Rock. It was always hard to get off the phone because that time was so precious at the end of each day.
Sometimes one of the babies don’t make it. Sometimes a seed doesn’t come up. Sometimes a plant dies, the honey bees leave, the eggs don’t hatch or the dog eats your new Japanese Maple tree. It doesn’t always work out and in those times, it is sad. It is a time of anger, sorrow, hurt and all kinds of tough feelings. And there are tears.
Those country roots never showed more than one late fall evening somewhere between 1976 and 1978…..
