This is an I-Heart podcast.

This is Lee Habib, and this is our American Stories, the show where America is the star

and the American people.

This next story comes to us from the south suburbs of Chicago.

Tom Lyons met his wife Lillian back in 1946, and they remained married until the love

of Tom's life passed in 2020.

Lillian, who was an opera singer in Chicago for 18 years, was 91 when she passed.

On Tom's 97th birthday, he received a gift from his son, Jarlet, that words alone cannot describe.

This is the story of that gift, an unearthed treasure that brought joy and life to his father.

And for just a moment, through the magic of technology and art, brought a bit of heaven

to earth.

Here's Jarleth to tell this remarkable story. You'll also hear from Jarla's father Tom.

I was back in town for memorial for my mom, along with everyone else in the family, that we had

postponed at least once or twice because she had died earlier in COVID, and we were not able to do that.

Now the memorial's over.

Everyone's gone home.

I'm sticking around with my dad and trying to figure out what can I do to help.

And I'm just trying to organize some things in the basement, see what I can get rid of.

And I noticed a large pile of records, and I thought, oh, I should be able to get rid of most

of these.

And so as I'm figuring out what to give away, a few records jumped out at me because they were

78s, which are unique and old.

...