I was listening to the song “Once Upon a December” from the movie Anastasia, when I thought of what was going on now.  I know I’ve been away a while, and when I look at my January post of what I planned to do, it all seems a lifetime away.  The song “Once Upon a December” is sung by Anastasia, the title character who has lost her memory of life in Russia during the Romanov dynasty.  The Don Bluth movie has the villain be Rasputin.  In reality, it was mostly the huge class divide between rich and poor that led to revolution, and death, for the guilty and the innocent.

The Romanov royal children and their parents were all shot to death, but the bodies of one daughter and the son were not found until 2007.  Before that several women claimed to be Anastasia, but all the bodies were analyzed by DNA, confirming that the Romanov royal family did die in 1918.  Anastasia was seventeen.  It’s sad, and haunting, and a little too familiar if you look at today’s times, and the great divide between rich and poor that the virus Covid 19 has brought out into the open.

I took the song and added my own lyrics of 2020 to it.  I’m not claiming to be any great songwriter, but it was how I was feeling tonight.  While I do believe we will get through this time, I do not think we should ever forget it.  So I’ll share it with you.  Here is a clip of the haunting, but lovely scene from the movie of the grand ballroom full of ghosts.

And this is my version:

Once upon a December

Shopping Malls
Big Weddings
Things I almost remember
And the stuff you could still buy
Once upon a December

My friends hold me safe and warm
People talk in a crowded room
No one needs a mask today
Not in my memory

It wasn’t even long ago
But hope now seems just an ember
Loved ones we used to know
Once upon a December

Doctors are not overwhelmed
People travel without a care
They are not afraid today
Not in my memory

All the shops are still open
Workers still have their jobs
People don’t care to protest
Once upon a December

Not so very long ago
People were not all dying
All of life I used to know
All I yearn to remember

And a virus
Few have heard of . . .
Once upon a December

The Things told me this was mostly depressing.  I promise to have something happier next time.  Hope you are all safe.

~ Alice