Monday, November 11, 2013


Saying Goodbye to an Old Friend




One of the things I always wanted when I was a child was a piano. I so wanted to learn to play the piano. One year I asked everyone to please contribute to my piano fund – I was maybe 10 years old. Unfortunately, not many in my family had the extra dollars to do that. So that goal was never realized.

When I was in college studying for my teaching degree, one of the courses I had to take was elementary piano. Every elementsry school teacher back then had to be able to pluck out a tune. So I learned the very basics and practiced on a piano in the music lab at school.

In the early 90's a dear friend was facing a nursing home and breaking up her home. She asked that I take anything she had and I would like to have. There in her living room sat the piano I had admired for the last 15 years of our friendship. Could it be that finally 50 years later I might really have a piano? I said I would love to have the piano and it became mine. Finally........a life long goal had been reached!

But just as there is a bright side to things, there is also a dull side. Soon after this wonderful piano took up residence in our home, my hands became so crippled with arthritis that playing was out of the question. For 20 years I have looked at that piano every night on my way to bed and thought about my friend. When I came downstairs in the morning and hundreds of times in between that piano was a reminder of my generous friend.

It seemed happy in its corner, but no one was really enjoying it. So on Tuesday, my long desired piano went to a new home. Our church was in need of a piano. They have someone who can “tickle the ivories” and make it sing again. (The keys are genuine ivory.) I am so happy it will have a new home, happy that people will be able to enjoy its wonderful sound. I am happy that this piano my friend loved and so generously gifted me  is going someplace that will make her happy as well.  We met in church and now, in a way, we will continue to meet there. And I am happy that one more large item is gone from our home. (Downsizing is not easy.)

When I told my sister what I had done, she made a comment that I think is kind of funny. “Leave it to you to find a home for it where you can keep your eye on it!”


2 comments:

Sewsouk said...

Hope you enjoy hearing the piano played where you can keep an eye on it! My Grandma had a piano which I always wanted to play but for some reason I was considered too young- by time I was old enough she had sold it!

Lynn said...

A very touching story. Sounds like you found the perfect place for the piano.