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Interview with Susan Whitmore
and Dr. Clint G. Rogers
Susan Whitmore: It's nice to meet you. Thank you for sharing this beautiful song with us. What inspired you to write “The Love Remains"?
Clint G. Rogers: This song helped me process my grief and ask better questions around death and loss in order to honor the life and love of those who have passed.
Susan: Were there specific events that led you to that place?
Clint: After a series of people close to me died, two of which were suicides, I was deeply impacted by feelings of loss from when I was a child—when my oldest sister took her life. I found my mind spinning with questions like, “What if I had called more often or showed more love?" I realized that questions like those kept me stuck in a feeling of helplessness and regret. It was like a downward spiral of despair, feeling enormous loss and regret.
The relationship changes, but the love remains.
That became the heart of the song for me.
The thing that shifted me was when I remembered something poignant that was told to me by a teacher from India who was a great healer whose patients were people like the Dalai Lama, Mother Theresa, and Nelson Mandela. I had even written about this moment in the book about him called Ancient Secrets of a Master Healer, but somehow it was only this moment that it hit me deeper. He told me, “The quality of your life depends on the quality of your questions.” ("Ancient Secrets of a Master Healer," p. 131)
Questions like, "What if I had done more?” were not helping me, so I pondered over what other questions I could ask myself. That is when this question came: “What did their love make alive in me?” This brought so many tears as I asked and answered this question, feeling my loved ones so alive in me. It was such a profound experience that I ended up creating this song, and putting images to it.
It’s not really a song about
trying to get over grief.
I believe the song came from a realization that grief is, in many ways, the other side of love. When we lose someone or something that we deeply love, the pain can feel like the love itself has nowhere to go.
Over time, I began to feel something different. I started to recognize that even though the person may no longer be physically present, the love doesn’t disappear. The relationship changes, but the love remains.
That became the heart of the song for me.
It’s not really a song about trying to get over grief. It’s about discovering that underneath the sadness there is that love that cannot be taken away.
Susan: What do you hope someone who is grieving feels when they hear it?
Clint: I hope they feel less alone.
Grief can make us feel like something is wrong with us—that we should be further along, that we should be able to let go, or that the pain means we aren’t healing. But maybe healing isn’t about letting go of the love. Maybe it’s about learning how to carry it differently.
I hope “The Love Remains” gives someone permission to feel whatever they’re feeling—the sadness, the longing, the memories, even the moments of joy that can sometimes bring their own complicated emotions.
Ultimately, I believe love doesn’t end when someone leaves this physical world. The form changes. The relationship changes. But the love remains. Perhaps it may also support people in any grief or sadness they may be feeling.
Susan: Thank you for sharing your story and beautiful song with all of us.
Clint: Thank you for how you love and live. Thank you for impacting my world for the better through your love.
Listen to "The Love Remains"
here: Love Remains with Intro
Verse 1
I’ve spent years collecting fingerprints
From souls who walked beside me
Some stayed for a season
Some stayed for a storm
Some taught me who I could be
A teacher in the mountains
A friend beneath the stars
A woman who saw straight through me
And loved the broken parts
Pre-Chorus
I thought love was holding on
I thought loss meant something failed
But time keeps teaching softer lessons
Carried on a quieter trail
Chorus
The love remains
Though the story changes form
Like an ember after fire
Like a shelter after storm
The love remains
Not as possession, not as pain
Just a blessing moving through me
Long after names and faces change
Verse 2
I used to count the conversations
I never got to have
The roads I didn’t travel
The futures that I mapped
But grief has its own wisdom
And tears have their own prayer
They teach me every sacred meeting
Leaves a piece of heaven there
Pre-Chorus
What if nothing went wrong?
What if this was always true?
Some people come to change your life
Not stay and see it through
Chorus
The love remains
Though the chapter finds its end
In the laughter, in the lessons
In the ways we still extend
The love remains
Like moonlight on an empty road
Every soul I’ve ever cherished
Still alive inside my own
Bridge
My father’s hands are in my courage
My sister’s smile still finds my eyes
The teachers live inside the questions
The dreamers live inside the tries
And all the ones I’ve had to release
Have not been lost to time somehow
They’re standing on the path behind me
Whispering gently,
“Keep going now.”
I don’t need to carry everyone
I don’t need to make it right
I can thank them for the journey
And still walk into my life
Final Chorus
The love remains
In the gardens that I tend
In the people yet to meet me
In the songs I haven’t penned
The love remains
Not unfinished, not undone
Just becoming something larger
In the heart of everyone
Outro
So here’s to those who changed me
To every soul who came
Nothing holy is ever wasted
And the love remains.
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