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