Laura's Song brings inspiration to P.E.I. band, and comfort to the family she left behind

Trish Vanderweerd remembers the times when company would come, and her husband Joe and teenage daughter Laura would grab their guitars and play a special family song together.

Come Walk With Me was based on a poem about nature that Joe's sister, Emma Walsh, wrote in a Christmas card one year. Laura loved it, and set it to music.

One night, her father recorded her singing it.

"I remember thinking, 'Why is he doing that?'" Trish Vanderweerd recalled. "But he was a proud daddy and he still is a proud daddy. And we're ever so grateful that he recorded a few other songs, and those are just memories. We often play it and it's comforting."

Tragically, Laura Vanderweerd died in a two-vehicle collision in December at the age of 18. Three other young people and the driver of the other vehicle also died in the crash, which left the entire province shaken and grieving for the families.

About six weeks later, Joe Vanderweerd approached John B. Webster of the P.E.I. band Fiddlers' Sons.

Webster had lost his teenage son in a farming accident 23 years ago, and at first, he thought Vanderweerd might be looking for advice on how to deal with such a tragedy, he told Mainstreet P.E.I.'s Matt Rainnie in an interview. 

But Vanderweerd wasn't aware they shared a similar grief.

He was there for another reason — to show him the video of Laura singing Come Walk With Me, and ask if Fiddlers' Sons would perform it at one of their concerts, or even record it on a CD.

Webster was touched.

"It might have been partly the emotion of the moment, partly her wonderful voice — just a gorgeous voice, Laura had. And I said, 'I'm definitely on board.'"

Fiddlers' Sons renamed the song Laura's Song. With Eddy Quinn on vocals and some fiddle mixed in, the band played it March 12 at the Kings Playhouse in Georgetown, with the Vanderweerds in attendance. 

Trish Vanderweerd said it was a bittersweet moment: "I love hearing my daughter play it and sing it — you know, that's a special thing — but they've done an excellent job with that song."

Vanderweerd said it was a challenge for some of her family members to share the song with the public, but it was "the right thing to do," they eventually decided.