{"id":889,"date":"2016-04-10T10:24:54","date_gmt":"2016-04-10T15:24:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/commonwordcommonlord\/?p=889"},"modified":"2016-04-10T10:24:54","modified_gmt":"2016-04-10T15:24:54","slug":"lukas-grahams-7-years-reminds-me-of-my-youth-and-my-late-daughter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/commonwordcommonlord\/lukas-grahams-7-years-reminds-me-of-my-youth-and-my-late-daughter\/","title":{"rendered":"Lukas Graham’s “7 Years”: Reminds Me Of My Youth…And My Late Daughter"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the Name of God: The Extremely and Eternally Loving and Caring<\/em><\/p>\n

My wife and kids always keep me up to date on the latest hit songs. And it is no different with Lukas Graham\u2019s hit \u201c7 Years,\u201d<\/a> which is now #2 on the Billboard list<\/a> in the U.S. As I listen to this very catchy song, I am immediately transported to when I was \u201c20-years-old,\u201d as Graham reminisces about his youth and childhood.<\/p>\n

And immediately, my late daughter comes into my mind\u2019s eye. I was, in fact, 22-years-old when she came into the life my wife (who was 20 at the time) and me. Before she was born, I was scared of having kids, scared of the responsibility of having to raise a child in this world. Yet, before I knew it, she came into our lives, and it was the most beautiful thing ever to grace our world.<\/p>\n

I knew love before she was born: the love of my parents; the love of my grandparents; the love of my siblings and cousins; the love of my beautiful wife. Yet, I never knew pure Divine love until she came into my life.<\/p>\n

She made everything beautiful; she brought everything joy. I still remember how she would ruffle all my notes I was studying for my medical school exams as I held her in my lap. I never knew I could love someone like I loved my baby, and I never knew the kind of love she would give me until she came into my life.<\/p>\n

Then, I was 28-years-old, and she was diagnosed with her crippling disease, A-T. Immediately, I knew what was in store<\/a>, but I shut that out of my mind. I made a conscious decision to live in the moment, enjoy each day with her, and not worry about what the future would bring. And each day was as beautiful as they could be, and the love she showed me was indescribable.<\/p>\n

Then, I was 34-years-old when she was diagnosed with lymphoma. Everything changed, and my wife and I went through the \u201cnew normal\u201d of having a child with cancer: the chemotherapy, and the hospitals, and the doctor visits, and the complications.<\/p>\n

I didn\u2019t reach 35 before my Beloved called her back to His Garden.<\/p>\n

And now, I am 41-years-old, and the pain of her loss still reverberates in my heart and in my soul. I am 41-years-old, and my heart still aches with pain whenever I think of her and how I can\u2019t be with her anymore. I am 41-years-old, and the grief still bores deep within me, and it is ready to come out on a moment\u2019s notice, such as when I heard this song.<\/p>\n

And if God wills, \u201cSoon I\u2019ll be 60-years-old.\u201d Yet, I know that my heart will not be ever be whole, even at that time. \u201cSoon I\u2019ll be 60-years-old,\u201d and I will not stop thinking about her and how she showed me what love is all about. \u201cSoon I\u2019ll be 60-years-old,\u201d and while I hope I will not \u201cthink the world is cold\u201d and the children I have now will \u201cwarm me\u201d and \u201chold me,\u201d my heart will always be sobbing over the loss of my child all those years before.<\/p>\n

I commend Lukas Graham for such an amazing song, one that is so relatable to so many people, including me. While the song made me sad, it also helped me bear the grief that has welled up and needed to come out at this time. And for that, my Beloved, I am eternally grateful.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In the Name of God: The Extremely and Eternally Loving and Caring My wife and kids always keep me up to date on the latest hit songs. And it is no different with Lukas Graham\u2019s hit \u201c7 Years,\u201d which is now #2 on the Billboard list in the U.S. As I listen to this very…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":175,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[359],"tags":[725,450,75,74,724,726,463,611],"class_list":["post-889","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-remembering-my-angel","tag-7-years","tag-child","tag-grief","tag-loss","tag-lukas-graham","tag-reminder","tag-song","tag-youth"],"yoast_head":"\nLukas Graham's "7 Years": A Reminder of My Late Daughter<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Listening to Lukas Graham's "7 Years" took me back to my youth, and invariably, I was reminded of my late daughter, who showed me what true love is.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/commonwordcommonlord\/lukas-grahams-7-years-reminds-me-of-my-youth-and-my-late-daughter\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Lukas Graham's "7 Years": A Reminder of My Late Daughter\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Listening to Lukas Graham's "7 Years" took me back to my youth, and invariably, I was reminded of my late daughter, who showed me what true love is.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/commonwordcommonlord\/lukas-grahams-7-years-reminds-me-of-my-youth-and-my-late-daughter\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Common Word, Common Lord\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2016-04-10T15:24:54+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Hesham A. 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Hassaballa","description":"Hesham A. Hassaballa is a Chicago doctor and writer. He has written extensively on a freelance basis, being published in newspapers across the country and around the world. He has been a Beliefnet columnist since 2001, and has written for the Religion News Service. He is also a columnist for Patheos. His articles have been distributed worldwide by Agence Global, and he was also a guest blogger for The Chicago Tribune and has blogged on ChicagoNow\" . In addition, Dr. Hassaballa has appeared as a guest on WTTW (Channel 11) in Chicago, CNN, Fox News, BBC, and National Public Radio. Dr. Hassaballa is co-author of The Beliefnet Guide to Islam (Doubleday), and his essay, \u201cWhy I Love the Ten Commandments,\u201d was published in the award-winning book Taking Back Islam (Rodale). His latest book, Noble Brother, is the story of the Prophet Muhammad told entirely in poetry, and it is now published in its second edition. 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