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MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:
It's Friday, which means it's time for StoryCorps. Dan May Jr.'s parents divorced when he was 5 years old. Life during the week was often difficult, but weekends brought relief. He and his sister would go to stay at his grandmother's house.
DAN MAY JR: My grandmother - she understood that because my parents weren't together, I was helping to raise my younger sister. And although I was still a kid, I had more responsibilities than I probably should have. That was very much a hard time. But when we would get to her house, she would kind of give me that gentle nudge of, hey, you don't have to be an adult right now. And I would go straight to her bedroom and grab this music box. It was white porcelain. It had golden highlights, and it played "Fascination" by Nat King Cole. I would wind this box up. I would turn it on. I would rock in this rocking chair. And that was the beginning of the weekend of adventure with Grandma.
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MAY: Every moment in that weekend was together - packing picnics, throwing balls, swimming for hours, and she was the one who taught us how to swim. And Grandma, I know, for a fact, was the very first one to know that I was gay. She would always give me this look and say, Danny, I think you should maybe play the field (laughter). It was attention that I maybe didn't get from any other adult in my life. Those weekends were everything.
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MAY: February 2021, she passed away. I wasn't able to get down to see her, but my cousin called me and I got to talk to her. And I said, if you're ready to go, it's OK. And she died the next day. My cousins packed up her property, drove all the way to Ohio, get to our house, start unloading the car - the rocking chair comes out. It smelled like grandma. I sat down in it. And then the music box comes out. And sitting in our driveway, playing this music box, I felt very lonely. But I'm grateful. When I listen to the music box, I think about a time when life wasn't easy, but she made it lighter.
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MARTIN: Dan May Jr. remembering his grandmother, Donna May, whose music box you're listening to right now. Dan first told a story in his voicemail he left for the StoryCorps podcast. If you have a story to share, leave a voicemail at storycorps.org/hotline. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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