From "A Healing Touch: True Stories of Life, Death, and Hospice" by Richard Russo (the chapter entitled "Blue Angels, Blue Angels" by Monica Wood:
"But really, there is something about music, even in a place such as this -- maybe especially in a place such as this -- that’s irresistible. The next song is I’ll Fly Away…. Ellen strums softly, taking the melody. I add the high harmony… and the song takes on layers and motion… and our blended notes rise up and up and widen the room and the world, yes they do. Everybody sees this, and now we’re a team, lighting into the rest of the songs…I’ve begun to think of this as praying, as holy work. We are a ring of people, an ad hoc band of angels…. mingling our voices, magnificently I believe… The music has made us friends."
"But really, there is something about music, even in a place such as this -- maybe especially in a place such as this -- that’s irresistible. The next song is I’ll Fly Away…. Ellen strums softly, taking the melody. I add the high harmony… and the song takes on layers and motion… and our blended notes rise up and up and widen the room and the world, yes they do. Everybody sees this, and now we’re a team, lighting into the rest of the songs…I’ve begun to think of this as praying, as holy work. We are a ring of people, an ad hoc band of angels…. mingling our voices, magnificently I believe… The music has made us friends."