Solheim's brother Daniel Johnson '81, a volcanologist, died tragically in 2005 when he and a colleague were traveling on U.S. Highway 101 and a logging truck lost its load.
After the accident, Solheim's grief counselor suggested she begin writing down her feelings in a journal each morning as a way to "breathe for that day."
"I was kind of stuck," Solheim admits, though she started to focus on the idea that her brother was safely in God's hands: "He's in heaven; he's fine." She also thought about others affected by grief.
"You have to find some reason outside of yourself to go on," she says. "I had to reach out, to look beyond my own pain. It's the little light at the end of the tunnel that you aim for."
"If I didn't live," she continues, "then that log truck killed more than those two men." Eventually her journal entries began to look more like poetry or song lyrics.
Then one day, browsing Craigslist, Solheim came across an ad: "Aspiring vocalists wanted." Though she'd sung most of her life--ever since soloing in her junior high school choir--she had never recorded.
She responded to the post and went on to partner with a Kirkland-based music producer, Daniel Christopherson, to create Offerings, a four-song CD of adult contemporary Christian music with a surprisingly uplifting pop bent.
"There are many kinds of grief," Solheim says, whether it's for friends, family members, relationships, or careers gone awry. With her music, she hopes to "inspire people to look for the 'now what?' instead of looking in the past."
Rounding out the project was Christopherson's team of crackerjack musicians, with recording credits ranging from the movie Titanic to the rock band Heart. Solheim also hired a woman to play her brother's cello on the signature track, "You're in Heaven (Dan Song)," and two other songs. (Johnson played in Puget Sound's string quartet.)
"It was as if Dan's voice responds to me through his instrument," she writes on her MySpace page (www.myspace.com/lauriesolheim).
Solheim describes her experience recording Offerings as a personal Cinderella story. Driving home from the studio, she says, "I would be so stoked, I'd have to pull over and call my parents."
In addition to doing voice-overs for KOMO-TV, Solheim sings at funerals, church gatherings, and other events and works as a Christian motivational speaker. She and her husband David also run a video-production business called Digital Ave., which released Offerings.
Solheim, though, would love the opportunity to record again. "I cannot wait for the next round," she says. "I could do this forever."
