Sweet Music

Long ago and far away Nana and Papa purchased a piano in California. It had once belonged to a cousin of Nana's who was a concert pianist. He actually had 3 pianos. It seems he passed away at a relatively young age and a few years after his passing his mother was selling the pianos. There was a baby grand that had already been purchased, a Kanabe 6 foot grand and a Steinway 9 foot concert grand. Nana and Papa went to see the pianos and decided to buy the 6 foot Kanabe grand. We had a Schnauzer dog named Tina that Nana raised puppies from and those puppies paid for the piano. She always told me that if I would keep playing I would someday inherit the piano. I took lessons for 9 years.

Through the years we moved a lot and never really had a place to put the piano. I had bought an upright piano from Nana's hair stylist, Ethel, when my kids were old enough to take lessons. That little piano has been everywhere. It had originally belonged to Ethel's granny and it only cost me 400.00. That's about all I could afford at the time. Tawna, Taya, Summer, and Jade all learned on that little piano. After we settled down in our home on 32nd Street I asked Nana if I could put the piano in our home there. She wasn't ready to part with it yet, so we continued to use the little piano. When we built our spec home in 2006/07 I made a special place for a big piano. Nana still wasn't ready to part with it. We had some money from a yearly bonus the year we had moved in that home and decided we really wanted a baby grand to enjoy. We intended to sell the piano and the furniture we bought for that house with the house when it sold. It didn't sell. The real estate market went to the bottom as we all know. When we left that home about a year after Nana's passing, we moved in with our Papa. I had professional piano movers come and move the big grand to a bigger room for it in the basement. Summer was going to live in the basement and I knew she would really enjoy playing the piano down there. I moved our baby grand into the piano room on the main level as it was a little smaller and looked good in that room. Meanwhile, Summer got married and now Jade and her family were living in the basement. She enjoyed the piano being a part of her family and now has a child old enough to start taking lessons.

Jade and Jeff just moved into a home of their own and Papa graciously let me have the big grand piano. She is storing it for me in her dining room. She is thrilled to have a piano in her home. It is a very old piano, over 60 years old, so she and her family have promised to take very good care of it. She will have it tuned and start looking for a teacher for both her and Jaxon to start lessons with the next school year. I hope the legacy of piano music will find it's way into Jaxon's heart as well as Jade's. It is one of the best therapies I know of when you are sad, grieving, stressed, even angry. No matter the reason you go to the piano, you always leave the piano in a better state of mind. Unless of course you are learning a new piece and are a little frustrated with the learning curve. All in all, it is a comfort and source of peace most times.

I used to think I was going to have to put a truckload of money into this antique to refurbish it. The man that moved it for me told me it was in excellent condition for it's age. I could do a little cosmetic TLC, have it tuned and be happy for many, many years to come. That set my mind at ease. The cost of totally refurbishing would be as much as a new piano. I don't have that in my budget these days. My little baby grand is still in the piano room at Papa's. I don't know when I'll be in a place I feel I can be stable enough to move it. Time will tell. It is in a good place and we all still go there to see Papa and play the piano there. Summer has our first little granny's piano and we are tuning it for her as her Christmas present. It's time her children learned to play. Taya and Kevin are looking for a piano to start their kids out on and Tawna has Grandma Dorothy's piano in her home.

I still play, Grumpy still enjoys sitting down to play and we are grateful we had parents who sacrificed some of their “extras” so we could learn to play the piano. Blessed are we to have such an opportunity for beautiful music in our homes.