Many moons ago, when I attended a sleepover in seventh grade, I met a new girl in town. Her name was Lana. She was from Natchez, Mississippi, and had wild curly blonde hair, a vibrant personality, and was a huge New Orleans Saints fan.
During the party, we started talking about music. It was the days of New Kids on the Block and Color Me Badd. After a while, Lana chimed in to say she was a fan of Elton John. The other girls were frowning, but my eyes widened and a smile appeared on my face. I too was a fan of Elton John. In fact, we discovered that night that our favorite album was “Elton John’s Greatest Hits 1976-1986”.
The summer before our freshman year in high school, we recorded a rendition of “Don’t Go Breaking My Heart” on VHS tape, with Lana singing the role of Elton and me singing the role of Kiki Dee. It became quite a hilarious and infamous video among our group of friends. Somehow, after all these years, I still have it. The pictures never fail to make me laugh. I love watching our naïve young personalities sing their hearts out and be silly in my teenage bedroom.
Lana and I split three of our four years at NC State University and attended two Elton John concerts during those years. College has brought a lot of changes and metamorphoses for both of us, but two things have remained constant: Elton’s music and our friendship.
In 2006, when my parents’ house burned down in a freak electrical fire, I lost all of my middle school, high school, and college photo albums. The following year, Lana gave me a box full of new scrapbooks where she had copied all the photos she could find from our many years together. It was one of the most special gifts I have ever received.
In 2008-2009, she and I had our first child, and during those first grueling years of motherhood, we regularly stayed on the phone or met in person, both working through various postpartum struggles. These little babies are now approaching 14, the same age we were when we sang our duet on videotape.
In 2016, after my mother passed away from cancer, the sound of Lana’s voice on the phone let me break down free. When you grow up with the same group of children, all mothers and fathers become a collective unit of parents. The death of my mother was also a blow to her heart.
Last year she called me and told me that Elton had announced a farewell tour for 2022. Granted, he had already done a farewell tour in 2019, but it seemed like that was the real deal. As soon as the tickets went on sale, we bought four tickets for Charlotte’s show, one for the two of us and one for each of our loved ones.
When Elton took the stage during the concert, it felt like watching a living legend. Her voice and personality are so iconic that few compare. Despite his personal issues and the changing and evolving world around him, Elton has remained loyal to his music and his fans. He really is a Rocket Man.
As I become wiser, I realize more and more that “family” does not have to be those who share the same genetic makeup. I have learned that friends sometimes know you better and appreciate the relationship more than those of the same lineage. Lana is such a friend to me, and I hope I’m that kind of friend to her.
The universe still has our backs, so if it wasn’t for Elton John who brought Lana and me together, it would have been something else. I can’t imagine my life trajectory without her.
As Elton sings in his 1971 song, “Friends:”
“Make friends for the whole world to see
Let people know you have what you need
With a friend at hand, you’ll see the light
If your friends are there, then everything is fine.
(Susanna Shetley is a writer, editor and digital media specialist at The Smoky Mountain News, Smoky Mountain Living and Mountain South Media. This email address is protected from spam. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..)
