Fastball: The Way

       During the winter of 1998 the Austin, Texas alt-rock band Fastball released a song called The Way.  It soared up the charts and quickly became a best selling platinum record.  When asked about the meaning of the song, band member Tony Scalzo, cited an article he'd read in a newspaper about an elderly couple who embarked on a short drive then disappeared.  They were found dead, still in their car, 350 miles off course in Hot Springs, Arkansas.  Scalzo felt that, while tragic, the story was actually very romantic and the song they wrote highlights that passion.
      Raymond and Lela Howard met in church and married in 1986.  Both had been married previously and lost their life long companions many years earlier.  Raymond, born in 1909, had been with his bride for 53 years.  Lela, born in 1914, had lost her husband after 40 wedded years.  For a decade they were alone, and probably lonely, before they found each other.  Most people consider themselves lucky if they find true love once in their lives.  Losing that love after a lifetime is unimaginably devastating.  Raymond and Lela miraculously found true love for a second time in each other and it must have felt wonderful.
       After a decade of succeeding and suffering together they started reaching the inevitable end that awaits all of us.  Lela had developed Alzheimer's and Raymond had had brain surgery after a car wreck.  They started becoming forgetful as well as suffering the other ravages of longevity and it became obvious to their children that they needed personal medical attention.  The couple refused, choosing to rely on their love for each other rather than surrender their independence.  It was a foolhardy but understandable decision that came to haunt their loved ones.
       The Pioneer Festival is a community fair held in Collinsville, Texas.  The Howard's never missed the opportunity to see the parades & pie baking contests featured at these utterly American events.  You can imagine seeing them walking slowly holding hands, cheating on their diets, laughing at kids enjoying the rides, and waving tiny flags as the floats and the marching bands passed by.
       Together they enjoyed this annual tradition for a decade before reaching the end of their road. Lela had an old Oldsmobile which they jumped into and set out on the short journey to reach the festival and somehow ended up in a ditch 350 miles away.  The couple remained missing for two weeks generating searches, newspaper stories, and a nationally televised appeal for any information to help locate the lost lovers on CBS This Morning.
       Their story became an object of sadness as well as speculative possibilities.  How could they sail so far off course?  Wouldn't they have stopped for gas, food, or bathroom breaks somewhere?  All that remained were the elusive answers to questions that have never been found.  Within the newspaper articles that followed the long search, there was a quote from one of their children who said she found "consolation knowing they died together". Therein lied the essence of inspiration found by Fastball to create their remarkable song The Way.
       The band took some artistic license with the Howard's story, loosely basing the lyrics on the facts.  The couple described in the song are middle aged instead of elderly and it asserts that they made a purposeful decision to disappear.  The night before they left they "drank up their wine and they got to talking" then "they started packing".  Before dawn they got in the car, abandoned their lives, and began a quest for freedom on the open road.  Wherever they were going the important thing was that they were together.  Leaving their daily burdens behind left them basking in the sunshine of a never ending summer needing only the nourishment of their love.  Eventually they even abandoned the car to walk upon a golden paved road, their shadows lengthening under their last sunset together.  It doesn't get more romantic than that.  In fact the song was so effective that my wife told me that was what she wanted for us in the end and I agreed.

Fastball: The Way