Music Memoir Prompt
‘Nothing’s Gonna Stop Us Now’
When the world stops and you are still spinning
“I’ve found the song for our wedding dance,” Mark said, thrilled with himself. Unlike other couples, we didn’t have our song yet. You know, the one that takes both of you away to a connected place.
His enthusiasm was infectious. His smile beamed like he had won an around-the-world trip and couldn’t wait to share it. I hadn’t heard of the song he had found. I was even more skeptical when he told me the name of the group.
The group was called Starship, which brought to mind space, Star Trek, and aliens, not a wedding dance song.
“Wait, you will love it, give it a chance,” he said. “Listen to the words.”
Even though it was over 30 years ago, the details play clearly in my mind.
In the opening lyrics of “Nothing’s Gonna Stop Us Now”:
Looking in your eyes I see a paradise
This world that I found is too good to be true
Standing here beside you
Want so much to give you
This love in my heart that I’m feeling for you
Let’em see we’re crazy, what do they know…
It had only been six months since we met each other. Everyone thought we were crazy, getting married so soon. But we just knew that it was right, no doubt lingering for either of us.
On our wedding day, in his speech, Mark said, “Today is the happiest day of my life, but the other happiest day was 7 months and 7 days ago when I met my now wife.” Our guests were unable to hold back their shock. Their gasps were unmistakably audible.
I remember that day too, he looked at me before he continued his speech, his eyes reminding me of those words of our chosen song. A knowing smile was exchanged, those words now echoing true. We were crazy and neither of us cared what anyone thought.
But let’s get back to that first day listening to that song together. The chorus came on; by this point, Mark was singing loudly:
And we can build this dream together
Standing strong forever
Nothing’s gonna stop us now
And I believed him. We were in our mid-twenties, and full of life plans ahead of us.
I began to mellow to the song. He was right; the words connected to both of our hearts.
But… first, we needed to dance to it.
The beat of the song was quite fast. I would say it wasn’t the typical romantic type of slow wedding dance song.
Sure enough, Mark was drawn to the fast beat naturally, unable to slow down. Trying to slow dance whilst his body was moving fast, made us look like a sped-up cartoon rather than a dreamy, in-love couple, and this left us in stitches, the laughter, and fast dancing each playing their part in this.
I agreed to the song, but only if he learned to slow his pace down. In the weeks before, we practiced it over and over until we believed that we had perfected it as a slow dance.
On the wedding day, when our song began to play, we made our way to the dance floor. He held me close as we began to dance, whispering the words of the song in my ear. Forgetting at that moment all the many hours spent perfecting the slow dance. In no time his body had picked up the fast beat, soon we were more quickstepping and boogie dancing away rather than slow dancing.
At first, I tried to slow his rhythm down, but his body spoke to the enthusiasm of the words forgetting all about slowing to the beat. The words were all that mattered, our connection increased to the tempo, joining together in his pace. Yes, maybe they were right because we looked completely deranged. I still laugh to watch that wedding video and our fast-slow wedding dance.
As the song ended, he whispered again, “Nothing’s gonna stop us now.”
How were we to know that two years later, there was a force bigger than us who stopped us in our tracks?
It played its own music fast and caught Mark quickly.
That force was the big C.
I was also 4 months pregnant.
Take it to the good times
see it through the bad times
The consultant told us that Mark had cancer caused by a condition called FAP — Familial Adenomatous Polyposis.
FAP is a genetic condition where polyps grow in the bowel, which if not found early enough, turn cancerous. We were told that he may have been the first in the line with this mutated gene, as there was no known family history. There was also a 50% chance that this condition would be passed onto our unborn baby as well. And that is for another story.
Mark underwent major surgery to remove the cancerous part of his bowel. He then had chemotherapy and radiotherapy.
The pregnancy was marred by time spent going into hospitals, with me sitting at Mark’s bedside as he recovered from the treatments.
At first, the treatment seemed successful. But then he became tired again. Further tests showed that cancer had spread to other parts of his body.
Mark became increasingly unwell but was able to be present and supported me through the birth of our daughter.
Two months after her birth, Mark passed away.
Till today, whenever this song comes on, it brings on a mixture of emotions. The happiness felt by his enthusiasm, the love affecting our brains, the meaning the lyrics conveyed the first time we heard them, and the sadness that something did stop us. Something beyond our control.
© Bernie Pullen, All Rights Reserved
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