SISTER SONGS SEASON 3 Episode 5: "Minor Key" 

In music, a minor key isn't necessarily sad. It's just different. The intervals between notes are smaller. The sound is darker, more complex. A song can be beautiful in a minor key. But you feel the weight of it. Memorial Day weekend, 2022. That's when the key changed. 

In this episode: A reunion at the airport after ten years apart. A pact we made in the car about our parents' funerals. A gym, a treadmill, and something wrong with my sister's head. A panic attack. A train back to Longview without saying goodbye. A 35-minute subway ride where I googled "glioblastoma" and fell apart. A phone call in the Oculus. And the summer we learned how much time we had left. 


Music:

• "Nearer My God to Thee" — Traditional hymn
• "Gnossienne No. 1" — Erik Satie
• "Piano Sonata No. 16 in C Major" (Allegro) — Mozart
• "Canon in D" — Pachelbel
• "Ave Maria" (Bach/Gounod)
• "Für Elise" — Beethoven
• "Scarborough Fair" — Traditional
• Additional tracks licensed via Envato Elements

Read more: jennyskoog.substack.com

Content note: This season discusses terminal illness, death, religious trauma, and family estrangement.

SISTER SONGS SEASON 3 Episode 4: "Bridge"

In music, a bridge is the passage that connects two sections of a song. It's not the verse or the chorus. It's the thing that gets you from one to the other — a shift in key, a change in texture, a moment where the song becomes something new. The bridge between Annemarie and me was built out of letters. In this episode: A Christmas gift. A phone call on a long walk through Harlem. Bloody Marys at a Mexican restaurant across from a church called "The Church of Truth." The nieces and nephews who called her the Awesome Aunt. A letter that told me to become an author. And the sister who believed in me before I believed in myself. 


Music:

• "Piano Sonata No. 16 in C Major" (Allegro) — Mozart
• "Waltz in G-flat Major, Op. 70, No. 1" — Chopin
• "Minuet in G Major" — Bach
• "Für Elise" — Beethoven
• "Canon in D" — Pachelbel
• Additional tracks licensed via Envato Elements

Read more: jennyskoog.substack.com

Content note: This season discusses terminal illness, death, religious trauma, and family estrangement.

SISTER SONGS SEASON 3 Episode 3: "Rest"

In music, a rest is a silence written into the score. It's not a mistake. It's not the absence of music. It's a deliberate pause — a breath the composer wanted you to take. My sister and I had a rest that lasted four years. In this episode: Displacement. A birthday card that said everything sideways. A crisis I can't talk about. A family that loved each other badly. A man named Steve who protected her boundaries. A secret wedding I found out about through the grapevine. And the letters that finally broke the silence.


Music:

• "Moonlight Sonata" & "Für Elise" — Beethoven
• "Gnossienne No. 1" — Erik Satie
• "Clair de Lune" — Debussy
• "Wedding March" — Mendelssohn (organ)
• "Sarabande" — Handel
• "Passacaglia" — traditional
• Additional tracks licensed via Envato Elements

Read more: jennyskoog.substack.com

Content note: This season discusses terminal illness, death, religious trauma, and family estrangement.

SISTER SONGS SEASON 3 Episode 2: "Variations"

In music, a variation is when you take a theme and repeat it, but it changes. The melody stays the same underneath. The texture shifts on top. Annemarie's twenties and thirties were variations on a theme. The theme was escape. The melody was always the same: get out, start over, find freedom. But the key kept changing. And somehow, she kept ending up back where she started. In this episode: A scholarship to Finland. A boyfriend named Alex. A secret trip to Africa. Rollerblading around the Minneapolis lakes. A panic attack at the airport. An email manifesto written at 9:51 a.m. And the twenty years it took my sister to find peace.

Music:

• "Clair de Lune" — Debussy
• "Maple Leaf Rag" — Scott Joplin
• "Minuet in G Major" — Bach
• "Für Elise" & "Moonlight Sonata" — Beethoven
• "Gnossienne No. 1" — Erik Satie
• "The Entertainer" — Scott Joplin
• "Finlandia" — Sibelius
• Additional tracks licensed via Envato Elements

Read more: jennyskoog.substack.com

Content note: This season discusses terminal illness, death, religious trauma, and family estrangement.

SISTER SONGS SEASON 3
Episode 1: "By Ear" January 21, 2026
 
Today would have been my sister Annemarie's 52nd birthday. Sister Songs is the third and final season of The Silence Between Hello. Season one was about my mom. Season two was about my dad. This season is about Annemarie — my big sister, the eighth of nine kids. I'm the ninth. She never let me forget it. In this episode: a musical prodigy who could play hymns before she could read. The religion that gave her a gift and used it as a leash. And the sister who once told me I shouldn't have been born, but spent her whole life reaching for me anyway. 

Music:

• "A Mighty Fortress Is Our God" — Traditional hymn (pipe organ)
• "Für Elise" & "Moonlight Sonata" — Beethoven
• "Heart and Soul" — Hoagy Carmichael, original duet recording by Jenny & Annemarie, August 2022
• Additional tracks licensed via Envato Elements

Read more: jennyskoog.substack.com
Content note: This season discusses terminal illness, death, religious trauma, and family estrangement.

The Silence Between Hello, Season 3: Sister Songs: A Season About Love Beyond Faith Coming January 21, 2026.
My sister Annemarie was a musical prodigy who could play the organ before she could read. She was my protector, my rival, my co-conspirator. We went years without speaking — and then we found our way back to each other. This season tells her story. Seven episodes. Seven weeks. Beginning on what would have been her 52nd birthday and ending on March 4th — two years since she died. Schedule:

• Episode 1: "By Ear" — January 21
• Episode 2: "Variations" — January 28
• Episode 3: "Rest" — February 4
• Episode 4: "Bridge" — February 11
• Episode 5: "Minor Key" — February 18
• Episode 6: "Accompaniment" — February 25
• Episode 7: "Duet" — March 4

Subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts so you don't miss the first episode. Read more about faith, family, and leaving Laestadianism at jennyskoog.substack.com 

Music:

• "Sarabande" — Handel (performed by Eddie Honcha, licensed via Envato Elements)
• Original piano duet recording — Jenny & Annemarie Skoog, August 2022

After seven episodes of archaeological excavation, all the evidence is assembled: Dad's 1939 diary, million-mile certificate, 2019 recording, and handcrafted desk where this final episode is recorded. What emerges isn't the simple story of a gentle man who never complained, but something far more complex—a human being who learned to thrive despite repeated attempts to make him disappear. We discover Dad was a beloved, confident boy who learned strategic stepping back after military rejection and church exclusion. Instead of becoming bitter, he channeled each rejection into increased competence, becoming the safest driver on the road when told his body was unfit, creating beauty with his hands when his voice was unwelcome. The complete picture reveals a man operating on a frequency most people couldn't tune into—his love was constant but quiet, his strength was endurance rather than dominance. We explore his small rebellions (Hank Williams humming, hard candies in the car console) and his innovative love language where oil changes meant "I want you to be safe" and handcrafted furniture meant "I want to create something lasting for you." The final understanding: Dad was never absent or mysterious—he was speaking a language of love that required attention to understand, loving the world in his own particular way through lasting creation rather than temporary words.

Two teenage sisters sunbathing on the roof, completely absorbed in their own thoughts, until Dad grabs the garden hose and soaks them from the yard below—his mischievous chuckle giving him away completely. This episode excavates the surface layer: the memories of Dad as father, gentle antagonist, and loving presence. We explore his playful love language of physical humor—flicking Mom's ear while she read, pinching arms unexpectedly, grabbing toes during book reading. Through the dress shopping disaster at Boyd's department store where Dad put the dress on backwards, we see him completely out of his element but showing up anyway because presence mattered more than competence. The most treasured memories emerge: bedtime stories where his speech difficulties became simply the unique sound of father's love, and the tender moment when he carried young Jenny through snow to meet a newborn calf named "Knobby"—teaching her that differences could be interesting rather than shameful. We discover Dad's hidden frequency of love: quiet but constant, physical rather than verbal, practical rather than demonstrative. But the episode also explores his limitations—his conflict avoidance sometimes failed when intervention was needed. The surface findings reveal that Dad wasn't unseen by choice—he'd learned to express himself in ways that felt safe after a lifetime of rejection.

Twenty-five thousand hours. Twelve and a half years of full-time work behind the wheel with perfect performance. Dad's 1975 Million Mile Club certificate represents something profound—proof of worth that couldn't be mocked or dismissed, achievement measured not in words but in miles. This episode excavates the work layer where Dad wasn't the rejected 4-F or mocked churchgoer, but a man whose competence spoke so loudly nobody questioned his worth. In the trucking brotherhood, Dad found unqualified respect based purely on merit—for the first time in his life, being different didn't matter, only being good at what you did. But his truest voice emerged in his woodworking shop, crafting benches, chairs, and desks gifted to family members, expressing love through lasting creation when words felt insufficient. We discover Dad's small rebellions: humming prohibited Hank Williams songs, playing harmonica alone in his bedroom, keeping hard candies scattered in his car console. Through Saturday sauna gatherings with lifelong friends and his retirement work transporting people with Down syndrome, we see how Dad found communities that appreciated him exactly as he was. This layer reveals a master craftsman who built his reputation mile by mile, project by project, proving his extraordinary worth through reliability and skill.

After sixty years of marriage, Dad still teases Mom in their 2019 recording—but even his humor has learned to stay small and safe. This episode excavates the marriage stratum where Dad found love and companionship, but also where the final pieces of his authentic voice disappeared. We discover that their early marriage had shouting matches and Dad fighting back, but somewhere along the way he learned that peace was more valuable than being heard. Through drive-through interactions where Mom speaks for him and family dynamics where she manages while he provides, we see how love can both sustain and silence. Dad's father wasn't Laestadian—he came to faith through marriage and social expectation, which explains why he never pressured Jenny about leaving the church while Mom applied all the religious pressure. We explore Dad's unique love language: building birdhouses for Mom's birdwatching, shooting squirrels that raided her bird feeders, cleaning his plate with homemade bread while she kept the cookie jar full. But we also discover Dad hadn't lost his voice entirely—he was a master storyteller at the family dinner table and had authority on road trips. He'd simply learned to compartmentalize his voice, saving stories for his kids, authority for driving, and teasing for safe moments with Mom.