For the past two years, Dolly Parton has released two TV movies that have moved us to tears. The first, released in December 2015, was called Dolly Parton’s Coat of Many Colors and told a very important part of Parton’s life when she was just a young girl living in a small cabin with her 7 brothers and sisters.
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Her mom was pregnant with a baby, which the entire family was excited about, especially Dolly. During an interview with Home & Family, she explains why she was extra attached to her baby brother, who they ultimately lost.
“A big portion of the movie was based on us losing one of my little brothers,” she said. “There were so many of us, we were being born right after another, so Mama would always tell one of the older ones, ‘Well, this baby’s gonna be yours,’ because that meant we’d have to take extra time, get up and rock it or whatever. The baby Mama was carrying was gonna be my baby and when I was her age, I was nine, so, we lost that baby and I was so brokenhearted.”
While her mama was pregnant, she was sewing a baby blanket out of scraps of different colored fabrics for her new son, whose name was going to be Larry. After Larry passed away, Dolly and her mother were very sad, and to help cheer Dolly up, her mom turned the baby blanket into a coat, a coat of many colors.
Many years ago, Dolly put her emotions following her brother’s passing into a song and titled it “Angel Hill”, which is what her family calls the place where Larry is buried. She felt the perfect place to debut it was in the TV movie, and it even features vocals from the little girl who plays Dolly, Alyvia Alyn Lind.
Lind was with Dolly during the Home & Family appearance, and when the hosts asked if they would perform “Angel Hill” together, they happily obliged. Producers brought out stools for Alyvia and Dolly, which Alyvia could barely jump on because she was so small. (Talk about cute!)
Alyvia and Dolly exchanged adorable looks at one another throughout the performance, where they sang together on the chorus and Dolly sang solo on the verses.
Although the song pulls on our heartstrings with lyrics like, “I’ll meet you in heaven if it be God’s will/My angel, my angel I’ll meet you in heaven, I can’t wait until,” it has an incredible message that will move you to tears.
Watch their performance below.