I first met Cody Mayo on July 9th, 2002. The night that I met him was also the night that musician Alison Krauss first met Cody Mayo, and Emmylou Harris, and Ricky Skaggs, Rodney Crowell, Del McCoury, Norman Blake, Jerry Douglas, Patty Loveless, Dr. Ralph Stanley and all the rest of the performers who made up the Down From The Mountain tour of that year. The concert featured the musicians who performed the music in the movie, O Brother, Where Art Thou. I was covering the tour for Gritz magazine when it made a stop here in Cincinnati at the US Bank Arena downtown. Sometime during the night the folks of the tour got word of a young man named Cody Mayo who was in Children�s Hospital battling cancer and who loved the music of the movie. I watched as, one by one, many of the performers took the time to talk with the 11-year old young man on the phone. Musician Norman Blake even played and sang the song �Big Rock Candy Mountain� for him over the phone, Cody�s favorite song from the movie.
Although he was worn out from the treatments, Cody�s spirit was infectious. The next thing that happened that night is that some of the musicians ask for Cody�s doctors on the phone and talk them into letting him out of the hospital long enough to come and see the show. The doctors agreed to let him out for about three hours, so they sent one of the tour busses over to pick Cody and his family up. The tour producers at the arena were busy making room for a kid in a wheelchair. But, as I wrote it in the article, �They prepared a space for him in his wheelchair, but Cody would have none of that. Although you could tell that he was in the fight of his life, Cody walked in of his own accord and he was on top of the world. They sat him in front, five rows from the stage, and Rodney Crowell introduced him from the podium as a special guest of the tour. At the mid-concert break they brought him backstage to meet the performers. On the way backstage the guard, not knowing who he was, stopped him, lo
oked down at the backstage pass around his neck that the tour made up for him, and when the guard waved him through his eyes lit up like he was the most important person there that night. And, he was. The look on his face was priceless.�
On Wednesday, the 25th of February 2004, I received an email from a total stranger named Emily who had read my story about Cody a year and a half ago; �Cody passed away today. He was a friend of my nephews. Cody was given two days to two weeks to live almost two weeks ago. Counselors were on hand today at the school that my nephew attends.� I finally got a hold of Cody�s father, Doug Mayo, and he confirmed the bad news. Cody had lost the battle. When I show up at the Tri-county Assembly of God church in Fairfield, Ohio on Friday the visitation line was stretched long out into the hallway. It took me almost an hour to make my way down to greet Cody�s father, sister Tosha, and mother Tracy. There is something fundamentally unfair about walking in front of a casket with a 13-year old kid inside of it. But his schoolmates were encouraged to sign Cody�s casket as his beloved ATV 4-wheeler was on a platform behind it
The funeral followed the visitation and the large gathering sat quiet as testimonials were given. Although he was not here on Earth long, apparently Cody inspired a lot of people. New York Yankee and Cincinnati Red Paul O�Neill was there, and hundreds of others. During the service a DVD was shown filled full of home movies of Cody at various stages of his life. He was a character, and if he had lived longer he probably would have been in show business in some way. He had that spark. On the DVD Cody was shown cutting up as a toddler, playing Sweet Home Alabama on piano, and performing in a student talent show with a group dancing to Billy Joel�s song �Uptown Girl.� They won first prize, and then a picture comes on the screen of Cody meeting Billy Joel himself after a concert. Then the sounds of the theme song from O Brother, Where Art Thou begins, �Man Of Constant S
orrow,� while a slide show of his pictures taken from the Down From The Mountain tour appeared. There were pictures of Cody with Ricky Skaggs, Patty Loveless, Dan Tyminski, and Emmylou Harris
The story was then told from the pulpit about Cody�s encounter with the Make-A-Wish Foundation, that helps kids with cancer make a dream come true. Time after time they would come by and ask if he wanted to meet the President, or meet a sports star, or a movie star, but he would say, �No, I am fine.� Finally, after many attempts, the Foundation folks were called back because Cody had thought of something. What he ended up asking for was a fund to be started so his sister Tosha could go to college. That was the kind of man he was.
Cody had cancer of the bone, in his head. Even during all of this he joked with his Dad, asking him, �If we have a new body in Heaven, how will we recognize each other?� At the end of his life the cancer had made him blind and deaf. But you have to think that somewhere in his mind and his soul was a memory of a certain night in July of 2002. Cody�s father, Doug, wrote me an email and put it this way, �Derek, Cody is in a much better place now. He's feeling no pain and has a new body. One of his all time favorite things in life was that concert, and the way everyone treated him like a king.�
--- Derek Halsey
>From: "Sid Bolden" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>>Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] >To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>>Subject: BG: Ralph in Waynesboro March 26 >Date: Tue, 2 Mar 2004 23:04:37 -0500 > > > >Dr. Ralph Stanley in concert with his Clinch Mountain Boys >(Ralph Stanley II, Nathan Stanley, Jack Cooke, James Alan Shelton, >Steve Sparkman, Jonathan Rigsby, and Todd Meade) >Friday March 26, 7:30 pm >Waynesboro (Va.) High School >1200 West Main St >Waynesboro, VA 22980 >Tickets Sold at the Door - Adults $20 Each Under 8 Free >For more info visit www.drralphstanley.com or email: >[EMAIL PROTECTED] > >
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