This morning I took a cab to visit a lady celebrating her 90th birthday. Jenny has been a regular member of my local church for donks, but in recent months has been unable to attend as she has been ill, having suffered from falls, infections and being so frail. So the plan was to play a few traditional hymns on the piano and perhaps a tune she might remember from the past.
When I arrived, she was with two carers and two friends from church. One of the carers was Suzie a lovely lady from Donegal, Ireland. The other carer was Alfonso. However, the piano was dreadfully out of tune. A honkytonk piano has strings which are slightly detuned. (Technical information: say the middle C has three strings, so one of the three strings will be levered down and will become SLIGHTLY out of tune with the other two C strings.)
But the piano in Jenny’s room, was all over the place. The worst out of tune piano I have ever played on. Not only were the notes well out of tune, so the dampers (the pads that stop the strings from ringing out) were not working. The result is that the piano notes sounded like long ringing bells, but out of tune bells. More like jangling chains. For any hymn lovers I played “Glorious Things of Thee are Spoken” and” Lead us heavenly Father, lead us”. But they sounded bloody awful.
However, I did have my Bluetooth speaker with me and discovered that Jenny loves Beethoven. So I found “Adagio cantabile” (Sonata Pathetique, Op.13) from my Spotify playlist. This music transformed the room. Jenny’s face was just transfixed in wonder. Perhaps she had never heard so much clarity of music from a speaker.
We chatted for ages. She asked, had I been to her house before? I smiled and said no, but that I’d met her at church. She said she had loved Beethoven from a child, where she was taught to learn of his background. She told me that his drunken father would pull Beethoven from his bed to force him to practice. According to one of the visitors, I was lucky to catch Jenny in form and so communicative.
I think my 6 years as a hospital volunteer had led me to being Jenny’s best birthday present! However, there was another treat for her. The husband of Jenny’s main carer, had been in the front garden, cutting down all the overgrown shrubs etc. with what I think was a chainsaw. He was a handsome Polish guy and his wife invited him in to meet Jenny. At this time he had taken off his shirt to reveal a handsome chest with some wonderful tattoos, one taking all his right breast . What Jenny thought of this strapping man I will never know. She carried on the chat as normal ha ha.
For most of Jenny’s life she had been a teacher. I will never forget this morning’s visit. So tranquil; the room so full of light.
In / Out Heart Failure
Out of the Blue an Angioplasty Appointment
Passing out/fainting on flight
Freaking out (very quietly)
