Danny Boy

Daniel Albin Johnson

12/4/1967 to 5/1/1973

35 years later, I would think it would get easier, but it does not. The day he left this earth, sunshine left the room and my heart was broken. God heals the raw pain, but the hole is still there. I do not dwell on it, but some days the grief comes in waves when I least expect it.

So many times lately I have looked at my children and wished I could share them with him. Maybe because my son is about the same age as I was when he left and my girls are almost the same age as him. My brother and I were 17.5 months apart and so were my children. I couldn't get the scanner to scan these photocopies of 126 black and white photos, so I photographed them quickly to share. Sorry for the blurry pics.


This photo is probably Christmas 1968, Danny and I with Grandpa and Grandma Johnson - can you see how he holds my finger. We were pretty close right from the start.

This is at my Grandparents' lot on the Skykomish River, probably 1969. Danny is drinking a pop. My Dad drove pop delivery trucks so we often had wooden cases of pop in glass bottles that went camping with us. It was not something we normally had so it seemed a neat treat at the time.

This joyful smile is what I remember because most of the time he was like this. He had an even tempered nature. It was usually me that had the temper or stubbornness!

This is 1970, since my cousin, the baby was born late 1969. That's Grandma Hopkins holding her and me with my arm around my brother. This is in the parking lot at Paradise at Mount Rainier National Park. I would have been about 4 and Danny 2 1/2 years old.

Oh Danny boy, the pipes, the pipes are calling
From glen to glen, and down the mountain side
The summer's gone, and all the flowers are dying
'Tis you, 'tis you must go and I must bide.
But come ye back when summer's in the meadow
Or when the valley's hushed and white with snow
'Tis I'll be here in sunshine or in shadow
Oh Danny boy, oh Danny boy, I love you so.

And if you come, when all the flowers are dying
And I am dead, as dead I well may be
You'll come and find the place where I am lying
And kneel and say an "Ave" there for me.

And I shall hear, tho' soft you tread above me
And all my dreams will warm and sweeter be
If you'll not fail to tell me that you love me
I'll simply sleep in peace until you come to me.

I'll simply sleep in peace until you come to me.