“Touched By An Angel” by Stevie Nicks

In 2001, this gem of a song appeared in one of my favorite films, Sweet November, written and sung by the gifted Stevie Nicks of Fleetwood Mac and solo fame. In Stevie Nicks’ own words, “Touched By An Angel” was written from a personal “poem about AIDS and about the angel that I do believe in my heart is there for us! I call her the ‘passageway angel.’” Its vivid lyrics and haunting melody produce a soothing and touching song to be played at a funeral for a beloved family member or friend.

The angel that Nicks alludes to in her explanation of her inspiration provides a comforting image for grieving loved ones of a patient and caring entity meeting the beloved person who is on his or her way to the afterlife. “Touched By An Angel” reminds us how much we need solace during times of grief. Sometimes, only music and lyrics can offer that form of comfort. In these occasions, Song lyrics can be the only words that make sense during periods of grieving.

“Touched By An Angel” starts with a story of two former lovers who had not been in touch for a long time. They reunite right before the woman is about to die. Nicks’ narrator gently introduces the angel, after describing the highly emotional reunion, by saying there is “someone standing at the side of the stage…glowing in the darkness in her own angel way.”

Stevie Nicks
(credit: analogrock.wordpress.com)

After the introduction, the song continues to describe the walk “in suspended animation” that the dying woman takes with the angel to enter into the afterlife. This beautiful funeral song gives grieving family members and friends a pleasant and reassuring image of the beloved person being guided in the company of someone caring and helpful, even after death.

And when she walked in the room after so many years
He looked up and saw her, he was standing at the crossroads
She was moving in slow motion, everything was the same
Except that everything was different

In that very moment, everyone was silent
And everyone was friendly for the first time in years
Everyone was smiling though their pain was apparent
And the floor was wet and slippery with the tracks of their tears

And then I see someone standing at the side of the stage
Not standing in the shadows, I see her face
Glowing in the darkness in her own angel way
I have come to make you better, I have come to take you away…

Read the rest of the lyrics here.

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• “Landslide” by Fleetwood Mac
• Memorial Music: “Dance with my Father” by Luther Vandross
• 
Touching Memorial Song: “Too Soon to Know” by Roy Orbison