Music with meaning
Summerside man dedicating festival performance to late girlfriend
Logan Maddix has been performing original songs for years. But his songs at this year’s Chautauqua festival in Summerside will have a whole other meaning: a tribute to his late girlfriend, Lisa Rogerson.
“Instead of songs I’ve written over the years, it will be songs and music I’ve written over the past few months from my time with Lisa.”
Maddix met Rogerson in January at a coffee house at the University of Prince Edward Island.
For six months, they were inseparable. “Every single moment I had with her, were the best moments of my life.” Rogerson had a strong impact on Maddix’s songwriting. “When I started writing music, I never put thought of myself in the situation the song was about. I would just imagine stories. But because of her, it was a different process and feeling. I put little messages about us in my songs.”
Rogerson died on July 15 after her kidney and liver failure due to Stage 4 lymphoma.
For months, off and on, Rogerson was sick. At one point she was diagnosed with mononucleosis. But one night, the symptoms became progressively worse, leading her family to take her to the Queen Elizabeth Hospital emergency room on June 18.
On June 20, their six-month anniversary, Maddix got his chance to see Rogerson.
“I held her hand and just looked at her. She had been sedated after she was admitted but that didn’t matter. I talked to her as well, and told her I loved her. We said that to each other a lot.”
That was the last time Maddix saw her.
“In a lot of ways I’m grateful for that. It gave me the chance to remember her as she was before.”
Rogerson was taken to the IWK after dialysis treatments were unsuccessful at Queen Elizabeth Hospital.
Each night, Rogerson’s mother, Alice, would tell her daughter that Maddix loved her and play their song.
One day, before Rogerson went to the hospital, she and Maddix were driving to Summerside, when the City and Colour song, “The Girl”, came on. Maddix looked over to the passenger seat where Rogerson sat.
“Lisa,” he said.
She turned her head and looked at him.
“This is our song.”
It was the biggest smile he had ever seen.
“It was an incredible moment. From there on it was ours. The only other time I’ve seen a smile like that was when we went to Island Hill Farm before she was sick.”
Maddix says he has regrets, but chooses not to dwell on them. “I know it sounds cliché and people might not think it’s possible at 19 years old, but I loved her and thought of her as the person I was going to spend the rest of my life with. I never thought myself capable of loving. But that changed when I found her.”
Now Maddix is determined to fulfill the things he and Rogerson wanted to do with together.
“After this performance, I’m taking two weeks in August to travel. It was something we were going to do. We didn’t know where we were going to go, we were just going to drive and that’s what I’m going to do.
“I’m thankful I got to love someone who was so loving.” Maddix will perform on Friday, July 28 at 4 p.m. in the Chautauqua tent that will be set up on the Wyatt Heritage grounds in the centre of Summerside.
For a full schedule of the festival go to http://wyattheritagepropertiesinc.com/.