TOUCHED BY LYME: Lasting musical tribute to Neil Spector’s legacy

Dana Parish is a singer, songwriter, and author who, along the way, has also turned into a major advocate for Lyme disease patients. In 2014, her world turned upside down after a tick bite led to serious complications from Lyme and related infections.

Parish says that “once I recovered my ability to read,” somebody handed her a copy of Dr. Neil Spector’s “Gone in a Heartbeat: A Physician’s Search for True Healing.” The book recounts how years of undiagnosed Lyme disease damaged Spector’s heart so much that he required a transplant.

Parish said she read the book straight through, “and for the first time in a long time, I had hope.”

She then sent Spector an email, telling him how much she appreciated his writing. That was the start of what would become a solid friendship between the two.

Spector also wrote poetry, some of which is included in his memoir. He once told Parish that he dreamed of someday having one of his poems made into a song.

One year, she surprised him at a Lyme disease fundraising event by singing a song she had composed from one of his poems. She said that after her performance, he told he had cried while he listened to it.

A recording of Parish singing that song, “Pull Me Through,” was played at the live streamed memorial that was held for Spector on July 18. It’s a good bet that people witnessing the service cried while they listened to it, too.

Click below to hear it.

Click here to view the 90-minute video of the Facebook Live memorial event.

For background about Neil Spector, see:

Lyme community grieves loss of Dr. Neil Spector

Remembering the gifts of Dr. Neil Spector

TOUCHED BY LYME is written by Dorothy Kupcha Leland, LymeDisease.org’s Vice-president and Director of Communications. She is co-author of When Your Child Has Lyme Disease: A Parent’s Survival Guide. Contact her at dleland@lymedisease.org.