I always loved “Unchained Melody” by the Righteous Brothers, and since some women start planning these things when they’re as young as five, I decided early on that I wanted that song to play after my wedding, during my first dance as a married woman. Silly, I know.

I used to work at the front desk at the Radisson Plaza Hotel in Kalamazoo, Michigan, and one day I saw that the Righteous Brothers were going to be staying at my hotel! I was excited at the prospect of getting to meet them and perhaps scoring free tickets to their show. The morning they were to check in I blocked their group into rooms, made their keys, and filled out their rooming lists.

The next morning I was awoken by my mother. She told me that she wanted to warn me: I was probably going to have a terrible day at work because Bobby Hatfield of the Righteous Brothers had died at my hotel in the room that I assigned to him. And indeed, a large portion of my day at work was spent fending off press requests for information. There was also a fair number of morbidly curious guests asking me which room he died in and of what; this, of course, was information I was not allowed to give out. We even had a fans who called the hotel crying, asking how his partner, Bill Medley, was doing. It seemed like they just wanted someone to talk to, and I couldn’t really tell them anything that they didn’t already know from the news. Bobby Hatfield’s wife also called a lot that day. She spoke with Bobby’s partner Bill and many other members of the group. Bill’s wife called – she was very concerned for her husband because Bobby was his not only his partner but a long-time friend.

A few weeks after Bobby died, tests showed that he had died of a heart attack brought on by drug use. I can’t listen to that song and think how beautiful it is, not any more. It will forever be marred by the sad memory of that day.