When i finally got the contract for this gig in Chile, i was very happy to go to work in South America. It was my first time in this part of the world and i have to say that i was very excited!! When i got there after leaving a very hot and polluted Beijing, it was winter time in the middle of july, very cold, with those mountains surrounding all Santiago. The first impression i had of the city was just amazing!!
I knew that this country will be friendly and welcoming, but i could never imagine how much those people would give me…
As soon as i arrived, the first time i met the people they all gave me a kiss on the cheek, this is the custom in Chile to give a kiss to Welcome a foreigner. That was a great start:) Make you feel confortable straight away. And step by step i got to know more and more people and made some really good friends. I was playing 5 nights a week in a very luxurious place and got on very well quickly with all the staff and guest.
Every night, was a great night, with new meeting and making new friends , laughing with my friend Barbara at the bar (the bartender), who was nice enough to give me a glass of Baileys for free time to time;)
Every night Barbara used to ask me to sing “Willow Weep For me” her favorite song, and i remember how she made me laugh the first time she told me that i had a song in my repertoire she really liked and tried to sing the melody. Was so funny because i just couldn’t recognise the song…well we found out afterwards;)
So, every night i was singing Barbara’s song with her smiling and laughing behind her bar with this happiness i will never forget. Barbara was from Valparaiso, 2 hours from Santiago by car, she invited me a few times to go there during the week-end to meet her family but i never made it, always had something to do…I remember her always telling me i was wasting my life working all the time ’cause Valparaiso was for her the most beautiful place on earth.
One week-end, i decided to go there and called her on sunday morning to ask her at what time she was planning to go, because she was always going to Valparaiso for the week-end. But her mobile phone was switch off, so i decided to get there with the driver and to call her later, it will be a nice surprise! when i arrived to Valparaiso and it was just as wonderful as she always described it to me, in the early afternoon i gave her a call, and she told me that : “I’m in Santiago this week-end”. I couldn’t believe it! Now that i decided to come over she wasn’t there, too bad. Well, we were sunday, and i told her that i will make the ride to Valparaiso with her the next week-end again, because i was leaving Chile the week after and i really wanted to do something with her before to go.
I went back to my hotel late in the evening, thought for a moment to give her a ring in case she wanted to go out, but i was too tired by my all day walk and decided to rest in my room. On monday, i had a lot of things to do and didn’t call Babara as anyway i would see her the following night at the bar and could tell her all about my trip to Valparaiso.
On tuesday morning , i had an appointment in town and went back to the hotel around noon. When i passed the door, the doorman asked me: “Do you know about your friend? The one you went out with the other day?” I looked at him taken aback and then he told me: ” She passed away in a car crash yesterday morning”. I couldn’t believe it. I was stunned by the news, unable to move, to say anything and even to think. The shock was to big. I was talking to her 48 hours before, saw her on saturday night, smiling behind her bar. I can’t really explained how i felt…it was just too heavy.
Barbara passed away on monday 3rd of september 2007 at 6am, 2 weeks before her 31 birthday. She was on a motobike with her boy friend on “Americano Vespucio” , she has been hit by a car, died immediately but her boy friend is still alive and physiquely well, i guess now. It was the car who went wrong….
I went to her funeral the same day in the early afternoon, took a car from the hotel and went to Villa Alemana next to Valparaiso where she was born 30 years ago, and what shocked me the most except to see her picture in the church standing in front of her coffin (i just couldn’t handle it) and the sad reality to be at her funerals, is that as soon as i put my feet in the church when the Lady who was representing the management of the Hotel where she was working told her parents, i was Trebeka “the singer”, they all knew who i was!! I was stunned!! Her mum, dad and sister knew me so well, because she was visibly talking all the time that she had a new friend Now, her friend Trebeka.
I can’t really explained how i felt about it, i adored Barbara, she was from far my favorite, someone i could talk with and i had a great friendship with her as we had finally a lot in commun. We went out one time, i saw her every night, she was asking me about the guy i liked , she always invited me and was always so caring and so human.
Her dad came to see me and told me he heard that there were a song i sang during my show that his daughter visibly loved very much, he asked me to sing the song after the church services. So i followed the cortege up to the highest hill of the cemetery. I remember thinking that she would rest in a place where she could face the stars and become one of them. The Priest said a few words, a prayer and her dad made me a sign and i understood that it was my time. So, i sang “Willow Weep For Me ” a last time for my friend on top of a hill in front of her coffin that hey were gliding into earth….I was not really in my normal state, i have to say, couldn’t stop crying, i just couldn’t control it, I don’t remember in my life having done something more difficult .
It was around 4.30pm afterwards i had to go back to Santiago and it was at 2 hours drive.
We defnintely never know how deep we touch the people. I’am an entertainer in love with what i’m doing, but first of all i love the people. So every night, i put my heart out and nothing make me more happy than when i see their smiles and happiness. At that point i really know why i’m doing what im doing. What we don’t realise sometimes, it’s how much we can touch someone’s heart, just because this is something so natural for us finally to do what we are doing, to sing and to travel that we almost forgot than for the majority this type of life is just a dream. So, when they see a singer coming from an other part of the world, it just make them dream.
And sometimes just the fact to talk in a very cool way make them feel so much happier than we could ever imagine. I know that now. And i will never forget than as an entertainer, at any level, as soon as we put our feet on this stage and start to “GIVE” some love with our voice, or feeling we start to make people FEEL, dream and sometimes if we are lucky we can even bring so much light in their life just by being ourself and doing our things. So, we have in a way a responsability.
I know now that i did touch her so much more than i could never imagine. I know we were good friends, but i didn’t realise how deep this friendship meaned to her.
Her death made me realise a lot of things. I always try to SEE the people everywhere i go, i don’t take anything for granted, as i had to struggle (and still) for so long deep and hard, but what’s happened made me realise, than my eyes and my heart were not open enough.
When i went back to the hotel that evening after the funerals, i had to go to work. I was not sick and i had to do my job. So this night, was very special to me. I had to do the “Show” “The Show Must Go On” as we say! It never meaned so much than this night for me.
I dressed with my best outfit, smiled, did like if nothing happened, i sang “Willow Weep for Me” for Barbara and only for her, with tears in my eyes like all the staff when they heard the song, this night was all for her and i think it was my way to say bye to one of the best friend i never had. Later on the following year i recorded in NYC my debut album that i titled “Willow Weep For Me” in her memory. This song was originally not supposed to appear in the CD, but Barbara’s sudden death changed everything. I dedicated this song to her. I’am very proud of the interpretation we did as it was a spiritual approach to me more than anything else i was very involved emotionally in this song im delighted as well of the musical arrangements the band did on it, and from where she is i hope she’s got a big smile on her face while listening to it!
Love you now and forever Barbara.
Two years later
Saturday 6th september 2009.
Barbara’s wish when she was alive was for me to meet her family. When i finally met them at her funerals for the first time, i made them two promises:
- That i will be back to Chile and when i will be back i will come to see them.
It took me 2 years to be back to Chile, and the main raison i pushed so hard for the hotel where i performed in 2007 to take me back is mainly because of this promise i made to her parents and sister on top of that hill this afternoon…I had the feeling that my farewell to my friend wouldn’t be complete as long as i haven’t visited her family.
I left Santiago early morning with Fernando (the driver) to Valparaiso, to visit Barbara’s family. When we arrived Barbara’s mother and sister were waiting for me. I felt over joyed to see them after what we shared the last and first time we met…the vibe was friendly and happy, they made me feel comfortable and i was happy to be in their company:)
When we arrived to Barbara’s father’s house for lunch, i was very glad to see a totally different man than the one i had in memory, completely devastated by the loss of his daughter. I will never forget her father’s sore face when i saw him at the funerals, he was just “suffering”.
That day i discovered Patricio (her father), smily and happy to see me and to welcome me in his house. He shown me the books he likes to read and told me he was very interested by spirituality, self evolution, buddhism and i recommended to him several books i thought he would enjoyed to read. Patricio, exactly like Barbara spent some time in the States when he was young and can still speak a good english at the opposite of Miriam and Maria Jose who don’t really speak english. Miriam had cooked a nice meal in my honor that we enjoyed sharing together. I felt like a part of the family for a moment and it was a bit like if Barbara was here with us that day, everything in the house, and in fact being together again, everything was reminding us to her memory . Because we were together because of her. Because of this love that she gave me and made me discover without asking anything in exchange. Because of this wish that she had for me to meet her family, to discover the city where she was born and the house where she lived in and grew up. And we made it, for her, for us. I spent the rest of the day with her mum and sister. They took me around, we went to the beach, had a tea, some laugh, it was just lovely.
In the early evening, i said bye to them and went back to Santiago, watching through the car ‘s window the beauty of the fading night, a smile on my face, in my heart and the vision of my friend smiling at me:)
Trebeka.
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