“Someone to Watch Over Me”
Shrill: Notes from a Loud Woman“Someone to Watch Over Me” is the recording Lindy West chose for her wedding entrance, making her father’s piano performance part of the ceremony. Played at her parents’ cabin, his favorite place, the song joined the occasion to her sense of his continuing presence there.
Use at the Wedding
West and Ahamefule J. Oluo married in July, a year and a half after their proposal, at her parents’ cabin a few hours outside Seattle. West walked down the aisle to a recording of her father playing “Someone to Watch Over Me” on the piano. The music was not merely a wedding selection: it carried her father’s own performance into the ceremony.
Connection to Her Father
West writes that she could feel her father at the cabin, which had been his favorite place. Choosing his recording for her entrance gave that remembered connection a place in the wedding itself. The song thus links a public beginning in West’s life with the presence of someone absent, through a specific performance associated with both him and the family’s place.
