I'm glad this thread came back up to the top. Great stuff here!

After my father died in 1997, a friend set up a song circle potluck celebration of life, and we all requested or sang songs, many of them favorites of Dad's. My sister and I debated which song we would each request, so I chose Golden Vanity as one he learned very early in his folk career and that everyone would know to sing along. That night with all of the diverse songs and remarks it became so clear how important his collection was, so I late that night I went out to his house and packed up all of his books, tapes, and LPs to put them immediately in safe storage.

When I was preparing the house to sell a few weeks later I stood in the empty front room, feeling that loneliness that comes when you move all personal effects from a space. I remember speaking out loud that I wished there was a sign that something of him was still around. At that moment I noticed the corner of a book on the shelf I was sure I'd completely emptied. I reached up and found the Penguin book of English Folksongs (mentioned earlier in the thread). I gently leafed the pages and it opened automatically to The Golden Vanity.

SRS