One of Taylor Swift’s most heartbreaking songs is her 2012 ballad “Ronan,” which honors a 4-year-old boy who had died from cancer the year before.
Originally, Swift, 31, released “Ronan” nine years ago as a charity single exclusive to iTunes. Now Swift is including a new edition of the song on “Red (Taylor’s Version),” the re-recording of her fourth studio album, “Red.”
Ronan’s mom, Maya Thompson, shared her emotional reaction to the re-recorded song, which was accompanied by a new lyric video featuring a photo montage of her late son.
“This is how I’ll be all day,” Thompson tweeted Thursday, sharing a photo with tears in her eyes. “I just listened AND watched Ronan, Taylor’s version. I couldn’t tell you about the music video until now. It is beyond perfection and I can’t wait for you all to see it. @taylorswift13 You are one of the greatest loves of my life. TY for loving him.”
She later added in another tweet, “Forever ours, thanks to @taylorswift13. I am sobbing. It is so painstakingly perfect.”
Ronan died shortly before his fourth birthday from neuroblastoma. Swift was moved to write “Ronan” after coming across Thompson’s blog, Rockstar Ronan, and the Grammy winner included Thompson as a co-writer on the 2012 track.
In a July blog entry, Thompson shared part of an email that Swift wrote to her when she asked for permission to include a new recording of “Ronan” on the re-release of “Red.”
“Red was an album of heartbreak and healing, of rage and rawness, of tragedy and trauma, and of the loss of an imagined future alongside someone,” Swift wrote, according to Thompson. “I wrote Ronan while I was making Red and discovered your story as you so honestly and devastatingly told it. My genuine hope is that you’ll agree with me that this song should be included on this album. As my co-writer and the rightful owner of this story in its entirety, your opinion and approval of this idea really matters to me, and I’ll honor your wishes here.”
Thompson, who founded the Ronan Thompson Foundation following her son's death, told Swift that “of course” she had her permission to include “Ronan” on her new album.
“I tried my best to articulate how much this meant to me through my tears, but there are not enough words in the English language that will ever be able to appropriately convey my feelings about this,” Thompson wrote in her blog.
She then penned the following message to Swift: “My words of thank you will never be enough. Thank you for keeping Ronan safe. Thank you for never forgetting him. Thank you for breaking rules and breaking free. Thank you for that heart of yours that is made of pure gold. You are a constant source of inspiration to me in so many areas of my life, and there is nobody in the world I would rather have Ronan with than you.”