Music: Something That Outlives It All

I’ve always loved music. I was raised with classical, took piano lessons for years and later discovered rock (the best years, 70s!), then Disco in college (I was a Disco Queen!), then Disney Tunes when I raised children, then David Bowie, Queen, Metallica, Disturbed and back to the basics: The Who, Stones, Doors, and threw in some fun stadium rock like AC/DC and Guns N’ Roses.

I love to know about musicians in our hemophilia community, of which there are quite a few! But one is right in our neck of the country. Francis Beaudoin contacted me to donate factor, and somehow we chatted about music. He lives here in New England; in fact, his mother was once president of the New England Hemophilia Association.

Then he sent me links to some of his songs. I was drawn in by the lyrics: they are powerful, clear, and so heartfelt. There are songs about overcoming hemophilia, but also about the political landscape today. Such talent, both in songwriting and in lyrics. He writes from what he knows: pain, limitations, learning to treasure the important things, and overcoming heardship. With his permission, I wanted to share his work with our community.

Francis writes: “I was born with severe hemophilia, and it has shaped the course of my life in ways both visible and invisible. There were many limitations placed on what I could do physically and professionally. I was not able to build financial wealth to leave behind for my family. But I realized I could leave something else. I could leave this archive [of music].

“This collection exists as a legacy for my wife and my children. It is something they can return to long after I am gone. It is a record of my thoughts, my emotions, my struggles, and my strength. It is a way for them to know who I was, not just through memory, but through my own words.

“If someone reads or listens to this archive decades from now, I hope they feel something real. I hope it reminds them of their own life. I hope they see that even though I lived with disability, and even though I faced many emotional and physical challenges, I endured. I adapted. I continued forward.

“I was not a quitter. This archive is proof of that.

“It is also a reminder to myself and to anyone who encounters it: never deny who you are, and always strive to become better than you were yesterday. God had faith in me. Because of that, I learned to have faith in myself.”

Like his lyrics, which can reflect gentle emotions that run deep, his music too can start soft, with a guitar and excellent singer, but swell louder and more powerful as drums and other instruments join in. This is music to connect to, through shared experiences in hemophilia, but also through feelings that we all have in this time of uncertainty in the United States. With that, the song I really love is “Unity: We All Belong.”

Please check out Francis’s songs, listen to them, see what speaks to you, and which songs you feel most connected to. There is always an element of hope and overcoming in them, like the lyrics here from the song “Anatomy”:

I am more than bone and fracture,

More than time’s slow capture,

Cells may fade and parts may fall,

But something in me outlives it all.

Francis’s music will certainly live on, as all music does.

Check out Francis’s music on YouTube:

You can search for Francis Beaudoin’s music on Apple Music, iHeart Radio, Spotify, Amazon Music and YouTube Music.