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My dad is a huge music enthusiast and told me once, that although Chris has given many different answers to the meaning of this song, he does so because it's a painful subject to speak about...Somewhere my dad saw that Chris said the song was written for and about his mother whom he had to watch die a slow painful death of pancreatic cancer...that's where the skin and bones part comes in..as the cancer progressed, she became jaundiced from the cancer spreading to her liver and that caused her skin to turn yellow..and the part about look at the stars see how they shine for you, was actually about the end of her life when he took her to the beach, which was her favorite place to go, for the very last time, before she became to weak..He said it was a clear beautiful night when they were down by the ocean one night during this last trip of hers, and the stars seemed to surround them from the sky to their reflection on the water that was unusually calm..Chris said his mom was in a wheelchair at this point of the disease and he kneeled down beside her and she took his hand and told him that this must be what heaven is like, being surrounded by beautiful bright stars..he told her that they were shining extra bright just for her...she passed away just 6 days later... The video being shot with just him walking on the beach, is the actual beach he had taken her too..that's why it's only him walking on the beach all alone...he didn't want anyone else in the video because he felt that he wanted the video to convey her no longer being alive to go to the beach with him... He said it was extremely difficult doing the video because of the memories of his mother all around him there but he couldn't do it anywhere else... The skin and bones part was about all the weight she had lost during her battle with this cancer but how she was still beautiful to him... My dad didn't tell me where he saw or read Chris giving the real meaning of this song, but he said that Chris did say he always just makes something up when asked about the song because it is still extremely painful to think about and have to explain to people...Chris also said, he had such a hard time filming the video and it took a lot longer than most videos he's done because they kept having to stop because he would become very upset walking on the same beach he had just brought his mother too, before she passed away.. The parts about jumping across and swimming across for her, was about him taking care of her and doing everything he could to make her happy and as comfortable as she could be while suffering the end stage of this disease...The drawing a line for everything you do part, is about him finally making her rest and stop taking care of him so that he could take care of her.. In other words, he put his foot down finally and made her stop doing anything but take care of herself..but it took its toll on her because she, too soon after that, became bed ridden and finally fell into a deep sleep that she never awakened from..He said he would've done anything to take her place or to make her healthy again, and that's where the part, for you I'd bleed myself dry came from...Pancreatic cancer has no cure, and is a pretty quick and painful death..When I say it's a pretty quick death, I mean that once a person finds out they have it, they are generally only given 3 to 6 months to live...My nanny was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and we took care of her at home for 5 months until she finally succumbed to this horrible disease with all of her children, grandchildren and great grandchildren, standing all around her bedside...Before my dad even told me what the song was about, I would cry my eyes out every time I heard it because it reminded me so much of my nanny and her yellow eyes and skin at the very end.. And how I would've bled myself dry to take all of the pain and suffering from her in a heartbeat..I love you, Nanny..(Vivian Evelyn Price) I hope none of you have to experience anything like that with a loved one. It was extremely hard to watch her dying more everyday, and knowing there wasn't a damn thing you could do to stop it or even slow it down..All we could do is treat the pain as best we could and try to keep her as comfortable as a yellow, skin and bones, precious grandmother could be... |
