GOWAN'S GIRL

Well, Gowan has struck gold again! Yes, Lawrence Gowan, Canadian hitmaker from the 80's and 90's, of A Criminal Mind, and You're A Strange Animal fame, has made a huge musical resurgence, at least with one member of my family when he sang, via video, Happy Birthday to my eldest daughter Maeve.


Now Maeve has been a huge Gowan fan for many years, which may be a little unusual for a Millennial, but then again, my daughter is no ordinary Millenial. She is unique in oh so many ways and I have been her number one fan from the moment I first set eyes on her. 

Which is why I'm really miffed at Gowan.

It all started when a friend of Maeve's informed her that Gowan was a client at the hairdressing salon where he worked. Maeve, who is usually a pretty cool customer, just about fell out of her chair exclaiming, "Gowan! Gowan! Lawrence Gowan!! You'll have to tell him that I think he's a Canadian treasure."

Well it seemed her friend did one better than that, and the next time Gowan walked into the salon, he not only delivered Maeve's message, but also asked Gowan if he would say Happy Birthday to Maeve . Gowan did one better than that, and instead of just saying Happy Birthday, he sang it, and it was all captured through the magic of a smartphone. 

To borrow a phrase from the great Gowan himself, he awoke the giant in Maeve and she was walking around 90 feet tall, with her head in the clouds, and grinning from ear to ear for weeks afterward.

Now, I have been croaking out Happy Birthdays for 25 years, and not once has my daughter grown even an inch taller, or smiled blissfully for weeks on end after hearing any of my renditions. In fact, I witnessed some grimacing and possibly even some shrinking.

So, who do you think you are Gowan, swanning in after 25 years with your velvety voice and your moon spun hair and stealing my thunder? 

Did you know that Maeve can paint with all the colours of the wind - that she is swift of foot on the soccer field and quick of tongue on the playing field - that she has a brain that excels equally in creative and academic endeavours and a streak of Irish stubbornness that matches her namesake, Queen Maeve of Connaught - and that she is painfully honest to a fault? (Sometimes it hurts real bad Gowan, but as Maeve always says, don't ask unless you really want to know.)

I once made the mistake of asking her opinion on a craft project I was working on where I had rows of old slides strung across a window to make a curtain. Though I was short on slides, leaving it a little sparse in some spots, I still thought I had managed to pull it off. When Maeve saw it she said, "Your curtain is in serious need of a comb over." 

Oh yes, Gowan, she's wickedly witty. And bring your helmet if you ever plan on playing Scrabble, or any other "full contact" board game with her, because she is C-O-M-P-E-T-I-T-I-V-E. In fact, her second greatest pleasure upon hearing your musical offering was the fact that it was going to make her uncle, another huge fan and the man who introduced her to your music, sooooo jealous.

I guess I'm not mad anymore, Gowan. You knocked down some of Maeve's "stone walls" and she now has a permanent Happy Birthday song that makes her feel as wonderful as she is.

Thanks Gowan. She'll take it from here.