My song for today: Memory from the musical: Cats.

An award-winning musical composed by Andrew Lloyd Webber based on Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats and other poems by T.S. Eliot, Cats was one of the musicals my mother recommended me to watch. To be honest, I didn’t really enjoy it as much as she said I would. That is, if we’re going to talk about the whole musical in general. I felt it was all over the place and had no real direction. But if we were to talk about this one song? Oh no. THAT’S a whole different story.

The first time I heard this song, I wasn’t even paying attention to the words and yet I was feeling melancholy. I was simply listening to the harmony of the instruments and watched Elaine Paige’s amazing performance as Grizabella, the Glamour Cat. The first time listening to this song, I was left in awe, tears running down my face even though I didn’t really understand why. I had to listen to it a second time. Elaine Paige’s gentle but heartbroken voice turned me back to my childhood.

It reminded me of when I was 4 and saw a brown adult female Tabby cat outside of our house one day. I’ve always wanted a pet but never had one. I kept bugging my parents and siblings if we could adopt her but they wouldn’t agree. They wouldn’t even let me feed her, so I had to sneak some bits of food outside just so I could feed and pet her. As a 4 year old, I haven’t really made any friends yet, so I really wanted to be friends with her before. There’d be times when that cat would come and give birth, but my family would bring those kittens somewhere that they won’t tell me. Growing up, I continued arguing with my family to adopt her, but we never did.

This continued until I was 12 years old. I remember the exact time I came home that day. 5:07 PM. I came home from school that day and saw that same brown cat, so thin, so frail, just lying down in front of our gate. I knew then that she was at her final moments. I stayed and pet her. I continued petting her until she no longer opened her eyes. I checked my watch one more time. 5:16 PM. I went in the house, went straight to my room, and finally, I cried.

What a masterpiece. What a masterpiece indeed.