Twice Upon a Time

I am a singer-songwriter, drawn to songs where the words carry as much weight as the music. My writing blends everything I’ve learned—from Kate Wallace, whose music first inspired me, to techniques I’ve picked up from Kate and others along the way. I’ve taken online courses from Berklee School of Music, one of which was Andrea Stolpe’s class, “Writing From the Title.”

That class changed the way I approached songwriting. We spent weeks crafting titles and writing bits and pieces of lyrics. At the end, our classmates chose which title we would turn into a full song. Mine picked Twice Upon a Time, though I secretly wove in another title, Married to His Grief, a phrase I first heard on the TV show Nashville.

At first, I thought the song would be about my dad, a man who lost the love of his life, had a few mismatches on Match.com, and eventually found someone with whom he could enjoy his time. She had also lost her husband, and the connection between them was mutually warm and comforting. He once said he just wanted to be able to hug someone at night. But as I began writing, I realized his story wasn’t quite right. He found companionship, but not the next great love of his life.

Then I started thinking about “right person, wrong time” stories. The high school sweethearts who drifted apart and found each other again decades later. But that wasn’t it either. I don’t write happy songs. At least, not back then.

Instead, Twice Upon a Time became a song about love lost. Not in the way we expect, and not in the way we plan. It’s about the kind of love that lingers in an empty house. The kind of love that doesn’t get a second chance. It’s also about realizing, too late, what you had. As William Bell expressed in lyrics so perfectly, “You don’t miss the water until the well runs dry”. That silence, that absence, becomes its own kind of presence.

 

Twice Upon a Time

Verse 1

He listens for her footsteps

She always slept in late

Mornings filled with phone calls

A kiss from her could wait

 

Once there was no need to rush

They were in their prime

Future plans were all lined up

Once upon a time

 

Chorus

Now silence fills the house

His mornings realigned

Coffee sipped in silence

There’ll be no twice upon a time

 

Verse 2

She told him of her fairy tale

A knight dressed up in white

But nothing he could do or say

Could save her from her fight

 

Chorus

Now silence fills the house

His mornings realigned

Coffee sipped in silence

There’ll be no twice upon a time

 

Bridge

Happily ever after ended the day she died

The perfect ending left unsatisfied

Now he’s married to his grief

All their plans now nullified

Forever was too brief

 

Chorus

Now silence fills the house

His mornings realigned

Coffee sipped in silence

There’ll be no twice upon a time

 

There’ll be no twice upon a time

 

I’ve seen this story unfold more times than I’d wish. Where the great love is lost, and the world quietly reshapes around the absence. The routines change. The house grows still. The coffee gets poured, but the chair across the table stays empty. It’s about the kind of grief that doesn’t go away, but becomes part of the morning.