By Susan Shinn
For The Salisbury Post
Michael Hiskey shares his gift of music each Sunday. Recently, he shared the gift in a special way with bereaved parents.
Hiskey wrote a song, “Somewhere in Forever,” for Heather Ward and husband Brian, who lost their baby girl on Feb. 8, 2008.
He performed the song during a healing service earlier this month at Christ United Methodist Church.
“I was very surprised,” Ward says. “It was very touching. It’s just a beautiful song. We appreciated that he would think so much about our situation to write about it.”
Hiskey and wife, Rhonda, had heard about the couple when they began attending services there. They were asked to pray for them.
Ward was pregnant but because her baby had a chromosome abnormality, she was not expected to carry her to term.
Addison lived for 13 minutes.
“We were afraid of what would happen,” Ward says. “We didn’t want her to suffer. She was beautiful and not different other than she was very small.”
Hiskey played hammered dulcimer at Addison’s graveside service, and that’s when the notes of the song first game to him.
“I felt really compelled to write something along those lines, to go to that painful place artists sometimes go,” he says.
He tried to write the song, he says, from a mother’s perspective, to grasp how that would feel.
The church printed 200 copies of the single to distribute at the service, having decided it would be a wonderful tool for outreach. The Rev. Jim King is pastor.
He brought less than two dozen copies home.
“The song is going to impact you on a personal level in that regard or make you think of someone to reach out to,” Hiskey says.
“No matter at what point you lose a child, it’s still a child,” Ward notes. “It was still a dream and a hope.”
Hiskey will perform the song again this Sunday at the Voices of Hope concert at Library Park in Spencer.
“You can download a copy for 99 cents on my Web site, you can purchase a copy for $5 at the concert or you can come to church and get a copy for free,” Hiskey says.
Hiskey asked a church member, Joel Smeltzer, to create artwork for the CD cover.
Using pen and ink, Smeltzer drew an adult’s hand reaching out to a child’s adult, their index fingers almost touching.
“I thought that was pretty cool,” Hiskey says.
Hiskey was hoping the song would be well received.
“I wanted to give them something to hold onto to when they couldn’t hold on to Addison,” he says. “I wanted it to be a positive thing, a very healing thing. It’s not a song you’ll soon forget. Hopefully the message in the song will help people cope and heal.”
For people to remember Addison is a blessing for her mother.
“A lot of people don’t talk about it,” Ward says, “but it’s just so healing for your soul.”
This is the second CD single Hiskey has released. He also wrote a song, “May I Have This Dance?” in honor of his grandmother, who is coping with Alzheimer’s.
“It’s about how she meets my grandfather, and how she’s waiting for Jesus to say, ‘May I have this dance?'” Hiskey says.
When Hiskey read the lyrics to his mother, she told him that his grandparents had indeed met at a dance.
Hiskey also released “Check This Out,” a full-length CD, in 2006. He’d like to do another such project, but at the moment, it’s cost prohibitive.
“I’m taking my time,” he says, “trying to do it right.”
Hiskey is part of the technology media team for Mooresville City Schools. He admits he’d love to do music full-time.
He calls “Somewhere in Forever” his best work to date.
“I’m still peaking,” he adds. “The best is yet to come.”
To listen to “Somewhere in Forever” or to purchase the CD single, visit www.indieheaven.com/artists/ michaelhiskey.
Freelance writer Susan Shinn lives in Salisbury.