A Song to Hook People’s Hearts

It was a simple affirmation of her love, the moment the elderly woman awoke from a coma and whispered to her beloved husband, “I love you, too.”

Those words were the miracle the old man had been waiting for in the weeks since his wife, who had a liver disorder, fainted in their living room and slipped into a coma. But just as suddenly as she had awakened, the woman fell back into her deep sleep. She died soon after.

The old man recounted the tale to Los Angeles Firefighter Curtis James Ogle during an open house in 1997 at Fire Station 100 in Reseda. Paramedics from the station had responded to the man’s call for help the year before when his wife fainted.

Ogle, who writes and sings country music in his spare time, used the story as the basis for his song, “They’ll Know Someday,” which he will perform for country music industry executives next month at the legendary Blue Bird Cafe in Nashville.

“The first time I heard it I was caught up in the content, and I listened to it again,” said Bonnie Campbell, a midday radio personality and promotions director at country station KHAY-FM (100.7) in Ventura County.

Although the station plays songs only by established country artists, Campbell heard Ogle’s song when he entered it in the National True Value Country Showdown 2000, a singer-songwriter contest sponsored by the station. The song was one of seven finalists out of 150 entries at the regional level.

“I picked the song because it had an interesting message and was well-constructed,” Campbell said. “I thought it would be an entry that might hook people’s hearts a little bit.”

Ogle said he hopes that someone who hears the song--which is getting airplay on independent country radio stations KLOA-FM (104.9) in the Antelope and Owens valleys and KIBS-FM (100.7) in Bishop--will recognize the tale and get in touch with him, so he can thank the stranger for sharing the story that inspired his song.

Sitting in the kitchen at Fire Station 98 in Chatsworth, where he is now assigned, Ogle said he was surprised by the man’s willingness to share something so personal with someone he’d just met.

“This man just came into the station and started telling me the story of his life,” Ogle recalled. “He talked about how they had been married for 40 years, and how they had the perfect marriage, worked hard, raised children and lived the American dream.”

But the man said his world came crashing down around him when his wife fell into a coma. The awakening gave him a brief respite from his grief, but it ended too soon.

Moved by the man’s tale, Ogle picked up his guitar, strummed some chords and the story flowed:

In the spring of ‘95/

She turned old and she turned gray.

Doctor said her liver failed/

And she’s never to awake.

Turned deep inside herself/

Into a peaceful sleep.

Awoke for a moment/

These last words to speak.

I love you/

Is what she said to me.

It’s a gift of words/

That made our lives complete.

And what I see in kids today/

Is how easily they throw their love away

They’ll know someday.

Ric Lippincott, owner of Big Horse Records in Hidden Hills, heard the song and became quite emotional, recalled company manager Michael Anderson, who offered Ogle a recording contract.

“Curtis is just a very passionate writer. He writes from his heart and from life experience,” Anderson said.

“A lot of times all you get is fluff. He is not fluff, he is about reality and the human element.”

For Ogle, the chance to share the couple’s love story in song is the opportunity of a lifetime.

“Their story is special and it needed to be told,” he said. “It shows that there is something intangible about life and love that we don’t understand.”