Michelle Mercaldo

June 20, 1956 - February 21, 2008

Shelley and Debbie in the early 70's,

in a photo booth on Myrtle Ave. in Ridgewood, Queens.

Me and Shelley, July 2001

Backstage before the Wallingford, Ct. "A Walk Down Abbey Road" show.

As some of you might already know, Shelley was a very close friend...much more like a member of our family.

She passed away early last year after a long and courageous battle with the big "C".

During the last few months of her life, she had some definite ideas about how she wanted her "affairs" handled.

In particular, she said she wanted to be cremated. Surprisingly to us, she then asked that her ashes be brought to INDIA

and scattered in one of the sacred rivers there. Just to let you know, Debbie and I have been going to Krishna temples for over 30 years and studying these ancient teachings of Eastern philosophy. From time to time, Shelley had enjoyed attending some of the festivals with us and believed in some of  it's aspects, but always remained somewhat cynical.

When she knew the end was approaching, she insisted on paying our planefares in advance, and

requested that Debbie and I  personally bring her to India.

For those of you who have some sort of belief in God and/or an afterlife,

the act of having this sacred ceremony performed by a bonafide holyman,

guarantees a tremendous spiritual benefit for the soul of the departed,

as well as insuring elevating that person to a much higher place.

We were fortunate that arrangements were made to have the ceremony performed by

Srila Bhaktivedanta Paribrajakha Maharaja.

I had already been to India once in February of 2007.

(I performed at a music festival in Mumbai with The Alan Parsons Live Project

and then afterwards took a 4 day pilgrimage on my own to a holy village called "Vrindavan".)

While I was there, I met a very spiritually advanced devotee named Shashikala who guided me around.

We became very good friends and I had been continuously corresponding with her

and sending donations for sacred offerings and such. I suggested to Shelley

that she send Shashikala a small donation along with a request for her to assist me with

all the arrangements for her ashes. Shelley became very excited about the whole thing and

also decided to leave a lot of her music CDs and records to me so I could possibly sell them and

donate the money in her name. I thought this was a great idea.

Shashikala Devi of Sri Govardhan Dham

(She was embarassed that I mentioned her name on this page,

so I decided to put her picture on as well and really get her going.)

So, that brings us to the here and now. one of the reasons I've put up this page on my site is to try

and carry out another of Shelley's last wishes. As you may know, Shelley was an avid music collector

and managed to acquire tons of great stuff. It would take me quite a long time to try to catalogue

all of it. Those of you know her are familiar with what bands she liked and what type of music she mostly

collected. There are lots of rare, obscure, out-of-print and bootleg items as well as the more common, and contemporary.

I will try and list some of the really rare stuff that I know of in this collection and would request from

all of you that if there is something particular that you are looking for, please send along your requests.

There's lots of:

Todd Rundgren, Kasim, Genesis,

Pearl Jam/Eddie Vedder,

Uriah Heep,

Glen Tilbrook/Chris Difford

CDs & vinyl...

Please keep this in mind.

Besides the fact that you may find a particular album/cd that you might want,

you are also receiving something personal of Shelley's

AND

donating to a legitimate, bonafide, spiritual cause.

This not only benefits Shelley, it benefits YOU TOO. (and me)

EVERYBODY WINS...

You can make your requests by leaving them in my guestbook

(your requests will remain private unless you would like me to activate them for internet viewing)

OR

you can send me a direct e-mail to godfreyt@aol.com

I will soon be posting some photos of the INDIA excursion including the ceremony at the Yamuna River

and the very special Fire Yajna held in Shelley's honor at an ancient temple in Vrindavan.