A song they’ll remember
from the very first note.

Emma

For her husband, Daniel

Ten years married, and I was completely stuck on what to get Daniel. I wanted a song about our first date, our tiny flat and the life we’ve made since. He laughed when he heard the bit about the leaking tap, then went very quiet. Later that evening, he asked if we could listen to it again.

Marcus

For his mum, Diane

Mum has already played it to my aunt, her neighbour and, apparently, the woman who does her hair. That’s Mum. For her 60th, I wanted to thank her for all those early shifts and the nights she waited up for me. I’m hopeless at saying these things out loud. This felt like a way to finally say them.

Sofia

For her dad, Luis

Dad isn’t really a big party person, so for his retirement I gave him something to listen to on his own. I put in his three knocks at the door after a long drive and our Saturday bike rides. I wanted him to know how much of my childhood he made good. His message afterwards was just “Thanks, kiddo.” That was plenty.

Oliver

For his sister, Grace

Grace made me promise there’d be no embarrassing wedding speech. A song was technically still allowed. It had our childhood secret knock, a couple of sibling jokes and a welcome for Noah. She was laughing before the first chorus. Afterwards she hugged me and said I’d found a loophole. Fair enough.

Maya

For her best friend, Amélie

We kept saying we wouldn’t make a big thing of her moving away. Then I found myself writing down our café, our ridiculous voice notes and the spare key she always had for me. I sent the song the night before her flight. Her reply was a voice note: half laughing, half crying. We still send each other those, just across a bigger time difference now.

Claire

In memory of her gran, June

My children know Gran mostly from photographs. I wanted to give them something of the person she was: her lemon tree, our unfinished crosswords, the way she called everyone “love”. We listened together after Sunday lunch. My youngest asked why she never finished the crossword. We ended up talking about her for the rest of the afternoon.