Both my mom (no longer with us, alas) and my dad (still here, but struggling with Alzheimer's) were wonderful singers, who loved to sing in the car and at home around the piano. Dad is still a wonderful singer, and remembers song words even though his short-term memory is unreliable. The earliest song I remember my dad singing was "Ragtime Cowboy Joe," a particularly rambunctious rendition to accompany a wild ride for me (and later my little brother) on his bouncing knees.

He and my mom would sing sentimental old songs together, songs like "Let the Rest of the World Go By." (I still know all the words, which I learned by osmosis.) He recently performed "I'll Take You Home Again, Kathleen," at his assisted living center's Valentine's party. It was his first public singing performance ever -- at 78. He remembered all the words.

Driving home to Grand Rapids, Mich., after a long car trip to Ann Arbor or Detroit, we would always sing one particular song. It was the closing theme for a folk-music radio show out of the University of Michigan (in the mid 1950s) called Festival of Song. I still associate this song with sleepy comfort -- and with my late mom's voice:

Sing your way home, at the close of the day;
Sing your way home, drive the shadows away.
Smile every mile, for wherever you roam,
It will brighten your road, it will lighten your load
If you sing your way home.