On Wednesday (1.31,) Bruce Springsteen‘s mother, Adele Springsteen, passed away at the age of 98 following a extended battle with Alzheimer’s. She was 98.
Taking to his Instagram account, the superstar singer/songwriter confirmed the news alongside a video of him and his mom dancing outside to a recording of the 1939 Glenn Miller classic “In The Mood.”
When Springsteen on Broadway returned in 2021, the music icon altered the text of the show to address his mother’s illness, saying she was no longer able to speak or feed herself, but that she still loved dancing to the big band music of her youth.
“When she sees me, there is always a smile.” “And there’s still a kiss. And there’s a sound which she makes when she sees me. I know it means ‘I love you.’ And when I put on Glenn Miller and she starts moving in her chair. She starts reaching out for me, to take her in my arms once more, and to dance with her across the floor,” said Bruce. “This is an essential part of mom’s spirt, it’s who she is. It’s beyond language and it’s more powerful than memory. It’s the embodiment. This is what she has put her trust in and lived her life by and which, despite all she has suffered, she carries on with to this moment, as if life’s beauty never deserted her. I love her.”
It was no secret that Springsteen had a combative relationship with his father, Douglas, who battled depression throughout his son’s younger years and felt that Bruce was wasting his time with music. Unlike his dad, however, Adele, was a staunch supporter always encouraging Bruce’s musical ambitions.and rented her son’s first guitar in 1956, shortly after Elvis Presley appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show.
“My mother was bright, happy, she’d merrily make conversation with a broom handle,” added Bruce in Springsteen on Broadway. “She believed that there was good faith, good heart, good hope in all citizens. She gave the world a lot more credit perhaps than it deserves, but that was her way…She’d be looking down at me with a look that for me, was like the grace of Mary. She made me understand for the first time how good it feels to feel pride in somebody that you love, and who loves you back.”
In 1969 the Springsteen’s moved from New Jersey to California and Adele returned to the east coast after Douglas passed in 1997 in order to be closer to her children and grandchildren. The elder Mrs. Springsteen was a staple at Bruce’s concerts and occasionally came onstage to dance during “Dancing In The Dark.”
In 2012, Adele told Springsteen biographer Peter Ames Carlin “I think with all the problems we had in our lives, God has rewarded me.” “I thank God for that; I could cry over it. It’s terrible to brag. But I can brag because I’m the mother, right? It’s hard to believe he’s my son.”
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Author: Saul Goode
Photo: Takahiro Kyono