WWDFF

This past Tuesday's Primary Election Day rocked this year, until the results came in.

I had the pleasure of hanging with my sister Sherrie Cohen, candidate for City Council at Large, all day long, as her designated driver.

I've worked plenty of Election Days in my lifetime, but most of them have blended together in my mind, filed under a category titled "WWDFF:  What We Do for Family." 

As the youngest child of Councilman David Cohen, I assumed I was locked into the Election Day grid for life, but then Mike was born, and he came in very handy as an immediate excuse - bless him! - I couldn't be expected to bring my little baby to the polls, now could I?  Allison soon followed, as did Amy...this was a truly blissful hiatus for me, free from political WWDFF commitments.  I have to remember to thank my kids for this.

It's not that Primary/Election Days are necessarily bad; it's just that they can be exhausting - standing at the polls from 7 am to 8 pm - and very confusing, contentious and disheartening - for starters, so I always preferred to avoid them.  I re-entered the madness when my sister ran for Council the first time in 2011, and then my brother's lovely wife, Mona, the Superstar of all volunteers, asked me if I could help out for Mark when he ran last year, and so I obliged.

But this year I didn't wait until I was asked - instead, I offered myself to the amazing Malcolm Kenyatta, my sister's campaign manager, and asked if he had any ideas for what I could do to help on Sherrie's big day. 

He suggested I drive her around so that she would be free to stop at various polling places without having the added concerns of navigating and parking.  I was game. Sounded like good use of one's sister and again - WWDFF.

When I got to Sherrie's house at 7 am - my childhood home - I was surprised that right away I felt the positive energy my parents always exuded in anticipation of a potentially favorable political outcome.  I could also feel their pride in Sherrie for the campaign she ran and in me too for going against my natural inclination to steer clear of politics and do the WWDFF thing once more.      

In contrast to other years when I was looking at the clock all day long, wondering how I allowed myself to get roped into this craziness that I wanted no part of, I found myself actually enjoying this experience with Sherrie.  I was reminded how beautiful a city Philadelphia is - from stately Mt. Airy to the far northeast where it meets the Delaware River; how the population is incredibly diverse yet more similar than different in the thinking of its residents; how delicious Fourth Street Deli is; and how relative strangers can touch our hearts. 

At one of the condo complexes in the northeast, where Sherrie and I visited so that she could introduce herself to the voters and also say hello to her Election Day workers, one particular gentleman responded with a smile that lit up his whole face, a big hug for the candidate, and words that will stay with Sherrie for life.

He told her that he had been active in the start of the gay liberation movement, just as she had been in the early 1970s, and he went on to say..."You are a dream come true for me. You are everything we fought for," which he described as somebody who is going after her dreams and is being all she can be.

And while this was very meaningful and kind to share, what came next was even more powerful - and surreal. 

He walked over to his guitar case, which for some reason happened to be sitting just a few feet away - almost like he was expecting this opportunity (maybe he was) - and opened it up, lifted out the guitar, put the strap around his shoulder, and began to serenade Sherrie.

She melted into a nearby chair - ironically one was free - and shortly after he began singing, I saw tears streaming down her face, so moved by the lyrics and emotion in his delivery, spoken from his heart and soul, directly to hers.

I believe it was "Follow Me," which at one time was sung by John Denver.

So while Sherrie didn't get the votes needed to win a seat on City Council, she got an inside glimpse of a man whose life she deeply touched, many years ago, and who, decades later, is still thanking her for it.

Actually, WWDFF doesn't begin to cut it, this time around.