***ATTENTION LESLEY BORGER AND ERIK BORGER NEW DUET! ***

LISTEN!

Now that I have your attention. This Christmas I decided to give my mom a song. This is no ordinary song but a song I thought of while leaving my mothers house a couple months back. You see my mom recently lost her long time husband, my step father Jim to cancer and it has certainly taken its toll on the lives of all those who knew him. 

If you knew or even met Jim Degrote you would have seen the fullness of life he exuded every single day! He was a hard working husband and father. Full of laughter, stories, and always ready to speak his mind.

He was also a fascinating man. I don’t think I’d ever met someone who did more or had more to say about nearly any subject on earth than Jim. 

One day while leaving my moms house I saw his boots. They were sitting by the back door where they had always sat, like nothing had changed. He was gone but for a second seeing those boots there one could forget he was at least for a moment. Those boots were a powerful image for me and I actually took a picture of them there at the time and really couldn’t get them out of my mind the whole night.

Directly after I saw them the song came. The melody and chorus were almost immediate. I can be pretty scatter brained but I knew at the time I needed to finish the thoughts while they ere present to me and within a couple hours the song was complete. 

What followed was hundreds of hours of work to get it where it is today. I’m no singer. No recording artist. And by no means is the song something worthy of more than what I intended it for, which is to tell the story of someone I knew and loved. That being said I did my best. Thousands of takes, edits, and work with Lesley on her county drawl. We did the whole project in my living room by ourselves and it probably shows! But along with the hard work there was certainly fun and laughter along the way. 

So here it is. A short glimpse into a great mans life as he lived it and spoke it. The songs could have been hours long without scratching the surface of him but we hope you enjoy none the less. 

To my mother. Merry Christmas mom this is your present. I sure hope you wouldn’t have preferred a robot vacuum to a song that will surely bring sadness. I hope it also brings you joy. 

To his family across the USA and beyond I hope this puts a smile to your face and finds you all well this Christmas season. 

Oh and pardon the political incorrectness, with Jim it was always good intentioned. 

From our family to yours: BE COOL! 

Share if you knew him or if you liked the story.
Thx 

Erik & Lesley

Erik Borger 1

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