MY LIFE IN MUSIC

Monica Cafferky, 55, reveals how certain tunes bring back special memories

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Flicking through the old vinyl LPs, I smiled. ‘Do you remember listening to these?’ I asked my sister Jane, 59. We were emptying my mother’s flat in Harrogate after her death in September 2020. My mum, Terry, had loved music – the soundtrack to my childhood was Elton John and Roxy Music. ‘Why don’t you take the LPs? You have a record player,’ said Jane.

So, I loaded Mum’s albums into my car without much thought. But that night, as I leafed through the records, playing each one in turn, I was transported back to different moments in time, and I realised just what a profound role music has played in my life.

As Rocket Man by Elton John filled my living room, I was taken back to one of my earliest memories of listening to it, aged four, at my parents’ busy B&B. As they chatted to guests, I danced out of sight, lost in my own little world of music.