Locksley looking out on Bratislava, Slovakia
I have a very beautiful sister who loves to sing. Her name is Locksley, and the running joke in the family is how every time she went to my Aunt Sue and Uncle Butch’s home on Signal Mountain as a girl, she would lock herself in the master bathroom and sing for hours because the tile floor and walls made for great acoustics.
My mom thought up the name Locksley after watching Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves when Kevin Costner yelled out, “I am Robin of Locksley!” She was eight months pregnant and had another name picked out for her baby girl. But when she heard Locksley, she knew that was her daughter.
In preschool, Locksley’s best friend Gabrielle called her Broccoli because she couldn’t pronounce my sister’s name. Even yesterday, Locksley, who is almost 22, told me a cute boy at UTC recently asked for her name; when she told it to him he stuttered as he said it back.
“People have the hardest time with my name,” Locksley said, amused.
Maybe that’s why my dad resorted to calling her Locks-Vegas from the time she was little—a nickname that makes my sister shake her head to this day.
In the spring of 2015 Locksley studied abroad in the Czech Republic. She lived two hours away from Prague in the town called Brno. This was her first time to really be away from home. She traveled all over Europe and made friends from all over the world. Her eyes were opened to the magic and opportunity of life.
Once she graduates UTC her plan is to take a gap year and teach English in Thailand where she will get to see the Festival of Lights. She has already told me with great excitement that during this festival thousands of sky lanterns are released at night over the water where they float high above to bring luck and wish fulfillment.
Locksley’s ultimate wish is to be a singer. I tell her that when she makes it big one day her name will fit perfectly with her fame because it’s the kind of name where you don’t have to hear the last name to know who it is. And Locksley could really make it big. She has the voice and the presence.
Right now, though, I’m thankful she lives in Chattanooga where I can see her during the week. She is four years younger than me, but we are very close. We are soul sisters, we say. She calls me Clern Dog and I call her Lern Frog, and somehow, to us, this all makes sense.
We often quote Steel Magnolias when Ouiser demands Clairee to walk her home, and Clairee replies, “You just live over there.”
That’s hilarious to us, and Locksley says, “That’s going to be us one day.” And I reply, “That’s us now!”
I think people are amazing—there’s so many different things we’re able to do—and Locksley helps prove this. She has a very calm personality and she never boasts about her beauty or talents. But when she opens her mouth to sing you instantly know there’s more to this young woman than meets the eye.
I can only imagine angels have beautiful singing voices because that is the general assumption. And if it is true their voices are majestic, then Locksley could have a place in the sky-choir of angels. Her voice is that pure and full and stunning.
We used to shove our ears against the bathroom door at Aunt Sue and Uncle Butch’s to hear her. She has the kind of voice that, after you’ve heard it once, you know from then on out if she’s the one singing. It’s the kind of voice that, when it first appears, you shush the sounds in the room and say, “Everybody, listen. It’s Locksley.”
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Claire Henley is a Chattanooga writer who can be reached at cchenley11@gmail.com
Her first book on her adventures while living in Colorado can be ordered here:
http://www.amazon.com/51-Weeks-The-Unfinished-Journey-ebook/dp/B00IWYDLBQ/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1394801373&sr=8-1&keywords=51+Weeks
She is also working on a book on her adventures hiking the Pacific Coast Trail, where she met her husband Caleb. They live in North Chattanooga.
Locksley