Keep me in your heart for a while - Warren Zevon

 I have a playlist on Spotify which all have a bit of a post-mortem theme. I listen to them when I look at some pictures of Cro that I have in a folder. And of course the songs now have an added relevance with my own condition. I don't feel it is at all maudlin, because there are ones among the list that celebrate life in its glory, even if sometimes by emphasising that it is finite.

The song "Keep me in your heart for a while" by Warren Zevon I only added recently. This Spotify link to it may work for you: Keep Me in Your Heart for a While 

He is not very well known in England, but was a very much loved musician, singer and composer in the US (even if he had a touch of devilment and chaos in his make-up)  In 2002, at the age of 52 Zevon was diagnosed with mesothelioma - an aggressive cancer linked to asbestos and knew quite soon that he was definitely going to die. He recorded his last album, "The Wind", with many of his friends from his musical career, and it is a good listen and done with care and sincerity, because he knew it would be his final one.

The song "Keep me in your heart for a while" is a touchstone on it. It is delivered by someone who, like Zevon, knows he is going to die and wants the person he loves to think of them in the way he asks. It is a song of love and sympathy (for the person who is going to be left) but it does not contain any fear or anger from the person who is going to die. But it also is very clear that the 'for a while' is the way of things when someone dies. It is the very opposite of the stereotypical emperor who wanted his name to echo for all time. Good luck with that. When you are dead, you still are there in the memories and love of the person who is left, but you will not directly be there in their future life. The things you shared are now in his/her heart, so that is where you have to be kept. Here is a little of the lyric:

Sometimes when you're doin' simple things around the house
Maybe you'll think of me and smile
You know I'm tied to you like the buttons on your blouse
Keep me in your heart for a while

It is a simple and loving song, and it makes you hope that Zevon had thought well about his death and had achieved some level of reconciliation with his too-early exit. It also has a sweetness that shows tenderness towards the loved one who will be left. 

I do keep Cro in my heart (for more than a while) and I hope that I will be remembered like that by the people that I love and who love me.