On Sunday, Lillian Hochman sang "Tomorrow" one last time for the late Vice President Walter Mondale, the friend she and her family often had weekend breakfasts with.
Hochman, 14, and Mondale met when she was in preschool with the statesman's granddaughter. He followed Hochman's budding stage career, which included the Children's Theatre Company's "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" and title roles in "Matilda" at CTC and "Annie" at the Ordway Center for the Performing Arts.
Although Mondale was out of town during performances of "Annie" in 2017, he told Hochman the show was a favorite — which is why she sang "Tomorrow" for him when Mondale threw himself a 92nd birthday party in 2020 and why Mondale's son, Bill, asked Hochman to reprise it at his father's memorial.
Accompanied by pianist Philip Brunelle, Hochman gave a rousing and passionate rendition of the iconic song toward the end of the service.
Days before the service, Hochman said, "Tomorrow" has had multiple meanings for her. She has sung it hundreds of times, but she anticipated some nerves before the memorial: "I've performed on big stages, but this is different. It's going to be on TV. The president is going to be there."
Hochman, whose parents are Michael and Liz Hochman of Hopkins, is pretty sure she knows why Mondale loved "Tomorrow." In "Annie," the title character sings the optimistic anthem to President Franklin D. Roosevelt, promising that, despite the Great Depression, "the sun'll come out tomorrow."
"I think the song is significant," said Hochman, who's currently performing in Minnetonka High School's "Mamma Mia." "It's really about bringing hope to a nation, and to the president, which I think is one reason it's his favorite song and show."
It's also a good reason to include its hopeful message in a memorial service for the man Hochman remembers as "a really good storyteller."
So, as Hochman sang "Tomorrow" on Sunday for an audience (at the Northrop auditorium and on TV) that included presidents, senators and other dignitaries, she was thinking about its context in "Annie." But, mostly, she was thinking about the man she knew as "Grandpa Walter."
