While I was crying my heart out Dolly was holding the motley crowd spellbound with her tears-blood-and -sorrow story with philosophical calmness. She described her lowly, poor beginning in graphic details, contrasting the beauty of heaven with her humble background. “Heaven is not like the cabin I was born in”, she started in her ever teenage voice.” In our little one room cabin we always had a fireplace cracking to provide warmth which we all shared. It was not easy for us. Papa and mama were busy and prolific at what they knew could provide additional warmth. The result was twelve hungry mouths to feed in the ghetto and twelve pairs of small shoes to buy.”
Dolly started her heavenly yabis filling the reception center with pathos. A heavy sigh here, a mighty drop of tear there. But they ain’t know nothing yet. More to come. Then she regaled the audience with her unusual story of poverty and pain from the cradle.
“You know, I started out with nothing but a guitar mama made for me from an old mandolin and a dream so big it wouldn't fit in that little cabin. Daddy worked himself to death in those tobacco fields”, she said in her Tennessee dialect. “We were poor. Real poor. People like to say 'dirt poor' — well, we were that, but we had love. That's what I always tried to tell 'em. Poor don't mean pitiful."
She told of how she moved out of her hometown for Nashville at age 18 and the desire to make good of her talent in music. “I arrived town with one suitcase, long hair, and every man on Music Row telling me to change everything. 'Lose the accent. Lose the wigs. You're too much.' And I thought, 'Well, honey, that's the whole point.'
"I wrote 'Jolene' because I was jealous, and I wrote 'I Will Always Love You' because I was leaving. That's the truth about songwriting. You bleed, then you turn the bleeding into a melody so somebody else don't feel so alone."
Heaven got quieter. Ears stood straight. Eyes glowing like neon lights. Dolly the dazzler, the sizzler. Then…
"Then came the year my body betrayed me. I was 36. Bleeding. Hurting. Collapsed right there on that stage in Indianapolis. Doctor said, 'Dolly, you got endometriosis. We gotta take your womb.' Just like that. No babies. Ever."
Pin drop silence in heaven.
She paused. She stood at a standstill. It was like she felt the pain again. That ache that pursued her in her marriage and career. Then she regained her strength to continue.
"I thought God had forgotten me. I gained weight. Lost weight. Ate my feelings. Thought about not wanting to be here at all. But Carl — my Carl — the Dean of my Faculty, he held my hand and calmly said, 'You're still you.' And I realized, maybe the Lord didn't want me to have two or three kids of my own. Maybe He wanted me to be mama to millions."
"So I started the Imagination Library. One little boy in Sevier County wanted books. Now it's 200 million books in five languages. Every child who gets that little book in the mail — that's my child. Every Dollywood worker who can send their kid to college — that's my kid too."
An applause. Hear! Hear! Hear!
Dolly looked up, bowed her WIG head and then looked the audience straight in the eye. She spoke into the microphone. One, two, three…testing, testing, testing…
The voice still maintained its original ringing, sweet sensation tone, capable of tantalizing any soul even the one made of Rock!
“I’m looking into the crowd of angels and I can see my mama and my papa
in the front row, Porter Wagoner giving me that sideways grin, all those teachers, nurses, and truck drivers who sang my songs when life was hard”. Then she went on…
"People always asked, 'Dolly, how'd you do it?' And I'd say, it's simple. Life gives you two choices when pain comes. You can let it harden you, or you can let it soften you and use it. I chose soft. I took every no, every loss, every scar — and I made it into a song, a book, a job for somebody else." She smiled her smile. The signature smile, ‘Dollian and Partonian’, which always made her look funny and sizzling.
"So if you're down there still listening, honey, don't waste your pain. Plant something with it."
Good speech from Dolly, the Darlin’. She dazzled ‘em in heaven just as she dazzled us on earth. But she was not done yet. The band — oh, Heaven has a band! — started playing. And Dolly took on her favourite childhood song which brought back old memories of life on the Smoky Mountains. This was Heaven and an Angel aide brought a Harp for her to play. But she ain’t got nothing to do with no harp. She would rather go for her guitar, tambourine and banjo. On the cue Dolly hit the tune - Applejack- and a celestial fiesta was in full swing.
“Old Applejack was loved by everyone he ever knew. He not only picked apples, he picked the banjo, too…”, she sang.
“Now, I'd go down to Applejack's almost every day
And we'd sit and we'd drink applejack that old Applejack had made for meee.
Then he'd take his banjo down, then he'd ask me if I'd sing
And he would play the banjo and I'd play my tambourine…”
Old classic country girl. O my!
She sang and sang, and the banjo rang and rang and rang until the door bell rang me back to full consciousness…
The melody still lingers on.
It's a sweet, nostalgic song — pure Dolly. Pure fun. Pure memory.
The girl was good.
She will forever be remembered.
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