Giving Thanks, Day 6

From November 6,  2017:

As it turns out, I didn’t give thanks yesterday when the Roto-Rooter guy left yesterday as he did absolutely nothing. 🙁

Our troubles weren’t going down the drain at all.


 

 

Today, I give thanks and shed a more than a few tears for a wonderful friend, co-worker, choir buddy, special person to everyone he met.

I’m so thankful I got to sing in the choir honoring Tim – and I’m very thankful that this Celebration of Life was live-streamed on Facebook so I can watch and listen again.

 

 

At the cemetery, another of our fine tenors led us in singing Amazing Grace.  When we got to the verse “When we’ve been there ten thousand years,
Bright shining as the sun…”  the sun came out in full force – an amazing God Moment, welcoming Tim home.

 

Water, Water, Everywhere, 2024

A continuation of this post.

Collection of crying water drops with various gestures.

At some point, we acquired a second POD

We must have brought bad luck to the Residence Inn. At least, this was in a different part of our building:

We couldn’t help but notice that their flood remediation was much faster than our home was.

The following are adapted from updates I shared with my piano studio:

On Tuesday January 2, 2018, they finally finished the demolition of our bedrooms, Tom’s office, the bathrooms and the halls.  There have been many delays – 2 weeks at Thanksgiving(!), Christmas, New Years…

The inspections have all been passed and the areas are certified mold and mildew-free.

We have chosen flooring which still needs to be approved by the insurance company.  After they accept it, it could be 7-10 days before that is delivered and can be installed.

In addition to flooring, we need the baseboards rebuilt and painted, bathrooms reinstalled.  After all that, the furniture will be returned from the PODS in the driveway.

All that being said, I would like to start teaching students in the studio again starting this afternoon.  If I hear from any of the construction folks that I can’t do this, I will post here and let you know by email, phone call and/or text message.

Please excuse the mess!  There are still boxes everywhere and no available bathrooms but the piano is fine and all my books are available as needed.  Please let me know if you prefer to meet elsewhere.

Thanks for your patience during this whole ordeal!

~~~

And here we are, January 24, 2018.  

We just signed a contract for reconstruction work to begin.  When it starts, it will be 7-21 days before it’s finished and we can move back home. 

Hopefully, it starts soon and their estimate is closer to 7 days… 

Meanwhile, we’re back to the past schedule:  Some lessons are at student’s homes, some are at Pender, some are at the studio, depending on who is doing what work on that day.

Students coming to the studio will notice an array of cases of flooring, vanities and other non-musical items.

As always, thank you for your patience!

~~~

It’s hard to believe but workers actually began work in our house on January 29 around noon.  My husband, Tom, said that they’ve finished the drywall in the rooms and started work on the bathrooms.

I believe that late afternoon lessons, beginning around 4:00 or so, can take place at the Studio.

We hope to be living in our home again in a couple weeks.

~~~

February 8, 2018

In an update of a different nature…

My Mom (Mary Kelly) fell Tuesday afternoon and broke her pelvis in 2 places. 

Early Wednesday morning, they found bleeding in her abdomen and took her from Fair Oaks to Fairfax Hospital for possible emergency surgery.  They did a new scan at Fairfax and found that the bleeding had stopped or slowed considerably so they decided to hold off on surgery until the morning.  

Later Wednesday morning, it was confirmed that the bleeding was stopped so no surgery would be required at this time.

There will be extensive rehab, possibly at Mount Vernon Hospital.

Her condition keeps changing and I’m not sure how that will affect my teaching on any given day.  I will try to give as much notice as possible when I need to cancel.

Thank you for all the prayers and good wishes.  


On the home front, it looks like our house will be finished today, with painting to come – possibly tomorrow.

Then, will be the reassembly of the rooms, taking stuff out of the PODs and figuring what to take and what to toss.

Depending on my mom, most future teaching should be at home.

What a year this has been!

~~~

February 9, 2018

 As of last night, my mom is doing really well. 

They had her sitting in a chair and walking a bit with a walker and a strap at her waist for the therapist to hold onto. 

They’re talking moving her Saturday (tomorrow) to a short-term nursing facility (I’m rooting for Manor Care across from Pender) for rehab. 

The bleeding has stopped or slowed considerably. She had another blood transfusion Wednesday night. 

Of course, everything is subject to change but there’s so much improvement since Tuesday.

Today’s lessons will be at the house unless something has drastically changed when I get to the hospital about 9 today.

~~~

February 19, 2018

First off – My Mom is doing really well, considering.  

She’s at Manor Care, doing daily rehab and napping a bit.  She’s eating a bit more, so this is all good news!

She’s had several visitors, thoughtful Valentine’s cards and gifts, a FaceTime with her grandson, a prayer blanket from her Pender knitting group and really nice flowers from a Studio Family.

All the prayers and good wishes are really helping.

THANK YOU!


 Meanwhile, we got our stuff moved out of the Residence Inn Saturday but some of it is still in my car (due to the snow/sleet yesterday).  That, along with ringing bells at the early church service Sunday – I’m really tired.  

We don’t start getting stuff out of the PODS until Thursday (if they’re on time!) and there is still so much to move and buy.  We have to buy a new bed for our son’s room and a new mattress set for ours – and we don’t know where the frame even is.

They will be installing flooring in the kitchen and laundry room sometime this week but that shouldn’t affect students in any way.

At some point, we may need to install handrails or other help for my mom but time will tell on that.

Of course, there’s still stuff around the piano that needs to be elsewhere.

But, it’s getting done, slowly but surely.

~~~

February 26, 2018

My mom had a bit of a setback last week.  She was due to come home from rehab on Saturday, February 24.  

On Thursday, she’d told me she was still having abdominal pain and some other symptoms, so I requested more medical care.  Friday, an outside doctor who works at the nursing home referred her back to Fair Oaks Emergency Room to be readmitted there.

We got to the ER and had the same room as we did when this all started, February 6.  Hopefully, it won’t be another Groundhog Day!

She was admitted about 9:00 pm.

Since then, she has had a variety of tests, IVs, poking and prodding.

They’ve found a large bleeding ulcer on her small intestine.

The current plan is to let her come home tomorrow (2/27/18).

Thank you all for your thoughts, prayers, understanding, flowers and patience.


Meanwhile, the house/studio goes on.  

We have been living at home since 2/24/18, although we don’t have any beds yet.  New ones are due to be delivered today.

Furniture has been unloaded from the PODS but nothing else has.

Stuff is being cleared out of the studio and returned to where it belongs. 

I am teaching at the studio unless there’s something at the hospital I need to be there for.  I will call or text you if that happens.

My mom’s room isn’t ready if she really comes home tomorrow.

February 28, 2018

My mom actually came home from the hospital on Monday night (2/26/18), even though her room – and the rest of the house – isn’t ready yet.

She has a bunch of outside doctor appointments but those are spread over several days.

She’s very strong and is getting around the house pretty well using a walker.

Thank you all for your thoughts, prayers, understanding, flowers and patience.


Meanwhile, the house/studio goes on.  

Furniture has been unloaded from the PODS but nothing else has.

Stuff is being cleared out of the studio and returned to where it belongs. 

I am teaching at the studio unless something new and unusual happens.  I will call or text you if that becomes necessary.

~~~

May 22, 2018

Meanwhile, the house/studio/life goes on.  

Stuff is being cleared out of the studio (and living room) and returned to where it belongs.  This is taking way longer than I thought it would.  Most of the boxes left in the studio are books that have to go in Tom’s office.  They have to be sorted and put in the correct places.

~~~

And, today – Stuff is being cleared out of the studio (and living room) and returned to where it belongs.  This is taking way longer than I thought it would.  

Most of the boxes left in the studio are books that have to go in Tom’s office.  They have to be sorted and put in the correct places, so those are nothing that I can do.

Clothing is still in boxes, some blocking the closet doors so I can’t put them away.

Who knew that water would affect our life for so long.

As always…

 

Giving Thanks, Day 5

I hope I’m not jinxing myself but today I am thankful that I haven’t had any migraines for a while.

 

It’s not “just” not having migraines, but the fact that, should I get one, there’s nothing I can do about them anymore.

 

I used to get migraines quite often, a hormone thing probably. I spent lots of hours in a completely dark room, blocking out sound, trying to keep my head from pounding.

 

There was a long period of time that I had a migraine 6 days out of the week for several weeks. By accident, a friend asked me on a Monday if I had one that day and that started me thinking – why do I have them every day except Mondays? I figured out that it wasn’t a migraine at all but an allergy headache – I was allergic to the bath oil I was using Monday-Saturday. I gave that to my Mom and those headaches went away.

 

I still often get allergy headaches. Since my Cushing’s transsphenoidal pituitary surgery, I can’t smell things very well and I often don’t know if there’s a scent that is going to trigger an allergic reaction. In church and elsewhere, my Mom will be my “Royal Sniffer” and if someone is wearing perfume or something scented, she’ll let me know and we’ll move to a new location.

 

There’s a double whammy here – since my kidney cancer surgery, my doctor won’t let me take NSAIDs, aspirin, Tylenol, any of the meds that might help a headache go away. If I absolutely MUST take something, it has to be a small amount of Tylenol only. My only hope would be that coffee from Day Thirteen. And that’s definitely not usually enough to get rid of one of these monsters.

 

So, I am very thankful that, for the moment, I am headache/migraine free!

 

Water, Water, Everywhere (Starting in 2017!)

I originally posted this in November 2017. All the boxes still aren’t unpacked yet. Most of the clothes aren’t unpacked/put away yet, either. But, life goes on and we’re doing the best we can.

This next series started as a Facebook post on November 12, 2017 

11/5/17

Rang bells early service

Water running up the hall.

Rug doctor from Giant.  Grease

Tom took out rug in our bedroom.

11/13/17

Still trying to sop up water.  It was wet under Tom’s desk.

11/14/17

What a fiasco – our water damage last weekend has turned into a possible big construction project with us moving out for a couple weeks or so

🙁

I’m trying to find a place to stay – and found that our dog Mimi may cost $150 a night extra, at least the first place I looked.

Friday, they’re bringing a Pod to remove everything from 2 bedrooms+closets, Tom’s office, linen closet, one bathroom, a long hall…

That’s just for the demolition. Then comes reconstruction.

At least I don’t have to move the piano (yet).

Happy Thanksgiving! Also looking for open restaurants to eat at on Thanksgiving except for Bob Evans. LOL.

11/15

Our “plan” At the moment.

I’ve gotten 2 rooms for the hotel that Jean suggested for next week but we hope we don’t have to stay there!

I’ve ordered a blow-up mattress from amazon for the living room in case we can stay here. http://amzn.to/2zJFc9k

We’re pretty sure that the people aren’t going to be working on Thanksgiving so I’ve ordered a whole, cooked meal (except for desserts) from Wegmans. I’ll pick that up on Wednesday.

Thursday, after the Virginia Run Turkey Trot, we’ll come here, reheat the Wegmans stuff, have a “normal” Thanksgiving, then cards, piano duets, then retreat to our hotels or blow up mattress…

11/16

We have a guy from the “catastrophe team” here now taking pictures and making sketches. I sure didn’t like that term!

Water damage update November 25.

We’re going from bad to worse here

The original water was 11/12/17 Here we are nearly 2 weeks later and things have stalled.

On Wednesday of this week, our demo guys left midday (maybe wanted to start Thanksgiving early. They said we needed some sort of Industrial Hygienist to come in and test whatever is now growing in the carpet for 10 days. Then, they put plastic doors over 2 bedrooms. Like that isn’t going to make stuff grow faster.

IH 1 was on his way to Maine for Thanksgiving. IH 2 didn’t respond to voicemail until Friday (yesterday).

IH 1 recommended IH 3 who was able to come out yesterday morning and take samples to her lab – all before IH 2 got back to us.

The demo guys won’t be back until Monday. Of course, the stuff is still growing, even more behind those plastic-sealed doors.

Our Wegmans box of Thanksgiving went well, though and we’re having a great visit with son and fiance, even if the whole thing is a little weird.

This will always be a Thanksgiving to Remember.



Sometime after Thanksgiving, we moved into the Residence Inn at Fairlakes. We had 2 bedrooms, a living room with a fireplace, kitchen area. Pretty good, considering.

Mimi learned to tolerate elevators and I’d always let her choose that (further away) or close-by stairs. Being a smart dog, we usually went down on the stairs and up on the elevator.

When Christmas rolled around, we got a little tree and decorated the door.

 

This holiday, I got rotisserie chickens from Costco and some sides since Wegmans didn’t have anything really appealing. We heated that stuff up at our house and had a sort of Christmas there, complete with piano duets and cards before heading back to the Residence Inn.

One of the gifts we had gotten Michael and Lingyi was a gingerbread house. They decorated it and gave it back to us.

Optimistically, they put our house number on it.

Of course, I took a keyboard over to the new place…

And, so ended 2017.

Giving Thanks, Day 4

 

Today, I’m thankful for my “Cushie Car”.

Since I started attending Cushing’s events, I’ve always tried to rent a PT Cruiser. There’s just been something about them that I liked.

A couple years ago, after my son was out of school, I was getting tired of driving the Mom-Carpool-Van everywhere. I think my mom was getting tired of stepping up into it, too. She doesn’t drive anymore, so she relies on whatever vehicle I’m driving to get her to appointments. So, I was delighted when she offered to pay for part of it. She didn’t realize it was going to be bright blue, though. I think she was thinking of navy or something more dignified.

Anyway, I had the car picked out, and the exact color I wanted and set off to the car dealership with my specs. They told me that the Cruiser didn’t come in this shade of blue. I’m sure that they wanted to sell one of the colors they had on the lot.

I got back to them and told them that I found this car online and I could go get it myself. Suddenly the dealership was able to get it for me, too, so I won out. WooHoo.

I’m just loving this car. 🙂

From a Cushing’s get-together in Columbus, OH, 2007, the yellow version 🙂

 

Giving Thanks, Day 3

sleepy

 

I was so thankful for Daylight Savings time this morning.  I had gotten to bed very late last night early this morning and had to be leaving the house at 8:30 am to ring handbells at church.

 

Hooray for that extra hour!

Giving Thanks, Day 2

Today I am hugely thankful that the last major issue we had here was in 2013 when Tom had his heart attack.  That event caused me to start a whole new blog to post about our experiences.

 

screenshot-2016-11-05-06-30-59

 

Adapted from https://maryomedical.com/2013/02/08/the-beginning/

 

January 27, 2013 was our 40th anniversary.  DH called me and said he was leaving a conference in Washington, DC and we’d go out to brunch when he got home.

The next thing I had heard was that he was in the ER with a suspected heart attack.  I rushed to the ER and found him in his cubicle.  He’d had 3 nitroglycerine pills by then and figured he could go home.

Wrong!  They had him stay overnight at the hospital.  January 28th, they decided to send him by ambulance to Fairfax Hospital for a cardiac catheterization and possible stent.

At the end of that, the surgeon came into my waiting room and said that he needed triple bypass NOW.  Three of the arteries were 100% blocked.  They got me calmed down to see him in the OR.

He was trying to get odds of not doing this surgery and just leaving then.  Finally, I said that he would do this surgery, we weren’t going to fool with this.

I really lost it when they asked me if we had any children and I said 1 son in NYC.  They called him at work in New York and had him get there as soon as possible.  I’m sure he could hear the fear in my voice.

They wheeled DH off for surgery and I waited again.  Luckily, 2 church friends came and sat with me and our pastor arrived about 8:00PM.  Our son arrived about 8:30PM after taking the Acela and a taxi directly to the hospital.

The surgery was over about 9:00PM but when we saw Tom, he was still under anesthesia.  They kept him that way until the next morning since he was too confused when they woke him up.

Long story short (too late!) – he got out of the hospital on the 31st and I played nurse 24/7.   He couldn’t drive/go anywhere for 6 weeks, and then there were 12 weeks of cardiac rehab.

One of the things that came out or cardiac rehab was becoming friendly with 2 other couples (although one of them has since split up).  We go out to dinner every couple months…and none of the surgeons would be happy about our choices.

 

heart-line

 

A slightly different take on the events, written 3 weeks later on the same blog.

Icy Days and Mondays…*

* With apologies to Karen Carpenter!

I know I’m not supposed to “relive” events.  I have done that too often with my Cushing’s and cancer adventures and I’m told that reliving causes nearly as much stress as the original event.

So, I plan to write down my memories here and try to let them go…

It all started on Sunday, January 27, 2013 – our 40th wedding anniversary.  I picked up my mom and went to church so I could sing in the choir.  DH went to a meeting of some sort on Benghazi.

After church, I stopped off in the church office for a goodie bag that the Staff Parish Committee had left.

Dropped my mom off at her house and went home.  I put the goodie bag on the dining room table and logged onto the computer to do some work.

I got a couple text messages from DH:

Text message

I figured I’d take a nap until DH came home for that late brunch.

The next thing I hear was my phone ringing, a call from DH.  He was in the ER at Fair Oaks with a heart attack.  OMG!

I immediately leaped up and rushed out the door.  I called one of my pastors and got to the ER in record time.   When I arrived, he was in a bed, all hooked up to monitors, fluids and such.  He was awake and feeling pretty well thanks to the nitroglycerine they had given him immediately after arrival.

When we had a chance to talk, it turned out that he had been in his conference and realized his chest was getting tight.  He found the hotel’s store and bought aspirin – 3 for $11.00 which he thought was extravagant.  He bought them and took them anyway – and probably saved his life.

On the way home, he was feeling pretty good so he stopped at the mall to buy an anniversary gift.  The salesgirl in Zales didn’t know that ruby was the stone for the 40th anniversary and was kind of ribbing DH for waiting until the last minute to buy a gift.  He walked out of there, felt more tightness and headed to the ER…where he called me.

DH was feeling pretty well thanks to the nitroglycerin and aspirin plus whatever else they had in the IV and wanted to go home.  The staff said no way – he had to stay overnight so he could be monitored.

The “automatic clock” on the wall said it was Monday.  Other rooms said Sunday.  Hmmm

A trainee EMT came in to ask some questions as part of his learning process.  Every time DH mentioned the word “Benghazi”, his blood pressure spiked about 40 points or so.  That term became verboten ever after.

My pastor stopped by and we had some nice chats and prayers.

Time passed, tests were done, doctors and nurses stopped by.  Finally, DH was moved to his room upstairs.

About 9 or so I went home and found our dog huddled by the front door – I had left so quickly I hadn’t left her any lights on.  I imagine she was quite worried.

I can’t even remember what I had to eat for dinner but I really wanted something chocolate.  On a whim, I looked in that goodie bag and there was a double-sized brownie.  I think I ate that in record time and it really hit the spot.

Ice

 

Monday morning (for real!), I checked the weather and found that school was starting late because of icy conditions.  I put on boots and took the dog out.  It seemed to be raining – if it’s raining, it must be warm, right?  So I didn’t really pay attention (and I had other things on my mind!) and completely missed seeing the black ice.

Next thing I knew, I had fallen on one knee, my cell phone in my pocket bruised my other thigh and my left arm hurt where I’d reached out to catch myself.  Luckily, I hadn’t let go of the dog’s leash.

I ended up sitting in a puddle of icy water for a long time, figuring out how to get up.  I finally sort of crawled up the trash can that was sitting in the driveway.

The dog had an abbreviated walk, I changed my wet, cold clothes and headed to the hospital.  I was showing DH my knee and one of the staff bandaged it up for me.  I told him I hadn’t fallen at the hospital and wouldn’t sue but I guess he wanted to be sure.

(Today, Monday February 18, my knee still has a huge lump under the skin and hurts when I touch it, although I’m no longer limping,  The bruise/pain from cell phone finally went away)

The hospital staff decided DH should go to another hospital which is world renowned for its work with heart cases to have a heart catheterization and possible stent.  DH was ready to walk out to my car to drive him to Fairfax Hospital.  He wasn’t thrilled when he was strapped to a gurney and out to an ambulance instead.

I headed over in my car.  They’d changed the entrances to the hospital since the last time I was there and I couldn’t find the “Grey Entrance”.  Finally, after wandering around for a long time, I found it.

I saw DH in the prep room where they got him ready for the heart catheterization – then they rolled him away after explaining all the things that could go wrong.

I went out to the waiting room, got some coffee and a sandwich and hunkered down with my iPad.

Eventually, my beeper went off and I was called back to the room where DH had been prepped.  The surgeon was there this time.  She said that 3 arteries were nearly 100% blocked and they needed to do emergency triple bypass.  They also needed me to convince DH of this since he was figuring he could tough it out.

I started crying but she said I had to get myself together and convince him NOW.  I had to put on scrubs and off I went to the OR.  I got there, DH was on the table trying to figure out the odds if he didn’t do this surgery.  All the medical staff said that he had  a very low chance of survival without the operation.  He still wasn’t sure.  He wasn’t afraid to die.  Tough Guy, Yadda Yadda.

One of the nurses asked me if we had any kids.  I said only one, in NYC.  She said I should call him and get him here ASAP.  She even dialed the number.  I talked to DS at work and he agreed to come right away.  He was pretty scared, too.  He later revealed that he had been crying on the train ride.

I went back to the OR, told DH that DS was coming and that he was going to do the surgery like it or not.  I signed the paperwork and sent him to a very scary surgery.

It was about 4:30 by then and I needed to take the dog out again.  They said I could go home – surgery wouldn’t be over until about 8:00PM or so. Got home, took the dog, made sure that there were lights on, and headed back to the hospital.  Another pastor from my church called.  He said he’d be by the waiting room later.

Two friends from the church office texted me to say they were coming over to sit with me in the waiting room.  They got there about 6:30 and we decided food might be a good thing.  We headed out, following a variety of directions and signs and walked for a l-o-n-g time.

My knee was killing me.  We got to the cafeteria and found out that it was closed.  the 24-hour one was elsewhere.  We finally found that, got some food and my cellphone rang.  The surgeon would be coming out soon to talk to me.

We hustled back to the waiting room and the surgeon came out about 8:00 with good news.  Successful surgery!  DH wasn’t awake yet but we could see him about 9:00PM.

The pastor arrived about 8:30, then DS got there about 8:45.  Finally, they said we could see DH although he still was asleep.  My friends left, pastor and DS went in to see him in ICU, sleeping so peacefully with so many lines attached.  The pastor prayed, then left.  DS and I decided to stay to see DH awake.

About an hour later, the ICU tech said they were going to keep him asleep overnight so we went home.

Monday

Tuesday, January 29 – DS called the hospital fairly early and found that DH was still a bit agitated so they were keeping him under a bit. I took the dog out and we got ready to head back.

I got a call that he was waking up but agitated.  He kept fighting with the nurses on the day of the week.  He kept saying it was Monday, even though it was Tuesday.  Surprise, surprise.  The calendar on the wall hadn’t been changed.  It still read Monday.  No wonder that’s what he thought!

We stayed all day, though nurses, techs, doctor visits and such.  He was in ICU so was monitored very well.  DH was quite confused and repeated himself a lot.  He wasn’t quite sure what had happened.

Monday

 

Wednesday, January 30.  DH had been moved from ICU into a regular room and we had to follow visiting hours, even though we were family.  We could visit at 11 and had to leave at 1, then back for 6-8.  Actually, this worked out well since I was able to take my first nap since this whole ordeal began.

DH had called DS early in the morning and  said he “needed” his cell phone to make some work calls.  Luckily, DS talked him out of that, saying that he could say some wrong things, given his temporary memory issues.  Thank goodness!  I didn’t want him spending his days talking on the phone.

We got there about 10:45am and they still wouldn’t let us in due to “flu season”.  I’m not sure how we could give him the flu in those 15 minutes before official visiting hours.

I glanced at the whiteboard on the wall where the nurses’ names, doctor’s name and such were written.  Unfortunately, no one had changed this whiteboard since Monday, so that’s what it still said.  <sigh>

We visited – DH got to eat a bit and had started having lines removed.  He thought he might put his shorts on so went into the bathroom to do that.  Unfortunately, he managed to pull the IV out of his hand and bled quite a bit.  The nurse sent him back to bed and said no more of that!

A representative from the group Mended Hearts stopped by with information and a heart-shaped pillow.  They have meetings the first Saturday of the month, so we might go to some of those.

The first pastor dropped by again and we made plans for Friday to pick up DH’s car which was still at the ER.  No one else I know could get it – it’s a standard shift car.

Not much else – visiting, napping, improvements every day.

Not Monday

Finally, it’s not Monday!  Nowhere, nohow.  Just Thursday, January 31 after 4 days of Monday.  Hooray!

DS had a headache so I went to the hospital alone.  He was going to come for the nighttime visiting hours.  As it happened, DH came home this day after lots of testing, last minute X-Ray, discharge notes, complaints about the night nurse…

We got home about 5:00PM.  Yea!

Now the real work began – visiting nurses, medications, doctor visits, rehab.

Since it’s no longer Monday, this post is over 🙂

 

heart-line

Whew!  There was a lot more after the surgery – visiting nurses, cardiac rehab, so on and on.

I am hugely thankful for my pastors, friends, family, people who brought us dinners, all the doctors, nurses, surgeons, visiting nurses, rehab personal, Mended Hearts, ambulance folks, aspirin, nitroglycerin, insurance, Fair Oaks Hospital, Fairfax Hospital, everyone involved in any way with this escapade.

 

 

Giving Thanks, Day 1

ocms-logo

 

Today, since it’s a “teaching day”, I’m thankful for my piano studio, my students, and my piano 🙂

 

When I was growing up, my dad was a minister, meaning we lived in whatever parsonage the church chose to let us live in.  The one we had in Pawcatuck, CT had an upright piano that someone had put out in the sunroom.  Not the best place for a piano, but I digress.

Since we had the piano already, someone – probably my mom – decided that I would take lessons.  We had the organist from the Baptist church just across the river in Westerly, RI

Apparently, Clara Pashley was fondly remembered at the church (now Central Baptist Church) since she was mentioned in an article from 2010.

 

screenshot-2016-11-04-10-04-33
25-centsMiss Pashley walked to our house each week and taught me (and my mom who was always listening in) piano for the grand sum of 25 cents.

I started with Ada Richter’s classic Teaching Little Fingers to Play, which has now been morphed into the John Thompson library.

From there, it was the Michael Aaron series, and some sheet music.

There was no music store in our town, so I have no idea where any of this music came from – but I still have it all.

My parents did very well for their quarter a week investment, especially since my mom paid good attention and was able to beef up lessons she’d had as a child.  Later on, she played well enough that she was church organist for a local Roman Catholic Church.

But I digress…

In those days, kids couldn’t do a whole lot of activities, so in 6th grade, I decided I wanted to be a Girl Scout.  Bye, bye Clara.

Girl Scouts didn’t last long but I did play piano in a talent show.  I remember, I carefully cut Burgmüller’s Ballade out of my Michael Aaron book and made a nice construction paper cover.  (I still have this, too)

balladeburgmuller

 

I doubt that I played this well but here’s what it was supposed to sound like:

 

A few years intervened and we moved to Springfield, MA.  The parsonage piano there was in terrible shape and in the dark, never-used basement.  But I decided to make it mine and cleared up the area around it and started “practicing”.

My Junior or Senior year of High School I decided I wanted to major in music in college.  I decided to learn, on my own, a piano arrangement of Aragonnaise by Jules Massenet.  I have no idea why or where that sheet music came from but I started working furiously on this piece.

aragonnaise

Hopefully, at some point, it should have sounded like this:

 

 

I started pedaling (no pun intended!) my music to the Universities of Connecticut and Massachusetts and ended up at UMass Amherst since we were state residents.

Early morning gym classes (usually swimming), then wet hair traipsing across campus to music theory in winter 5 days a week.  AARRGGH!

But I stuck it out.

My wonderful piano teacher, Howard Lebow, was killed in a car accident my sophomore year and I was devastated.  There will be more about him in a post on January 26, 2024 over on https://oconnormusicstudio.com

I took yet another break from piano lessons – but I kept playing.

After DH graduated, we moved to Milwaukee, WI for his graduate school.  Besides working 2 jobs, I found time to commandeer the practice rooms at the University of Wisconsin.  I also found a teacher at the Schaum School of Music.  She was amazed that I had no piano at home to practice on.

When we later moved to Alexandria, VA my DH gave me a choice of new car or piano. So, I found a used piano.  The owner had acquired it in a divorce and wanted it gone.  Yesterday.  She even paid to move it out of her apartment.

The new-to-me piano took up half our living room.  When my parents came to visit, their feet were under my piano as they slept on cots.

I found yet another new piano teacher and she is still my best friend to this day.

That piano moved to several locations before I bought a brand new Yamaha grand piano.  The movers accidentally brought in the wrong one and I made them return it.  The people who lived in an apartment were probably unhappy when they had to return my piano and take their own new baby grand back.

I started teaching as a traveling piano teacher in Silver Spring, Maryland.  I continued that in Wilmington, DE.

When we got to Fairfax, VA I decided no more traveling.  Students would come to me.  And so they have since 1973.

What is supposed to be our living room is filled with music books, electric keyboards, the grand piano, 2 organs, 2 violins, 2 clarinets, recorders, an aerophone, a hand-made (by me!) dulcimer and other musical “stuff”.

Piano playing has gotten me through the worst times of my life.  Teaching has been a lifeline for me, as well.

I am so thankful for the students who have stayed with me over the years.

 

Giving Thanks: Day Zero

 

Several years ago I decided to try Facebook’s 40 Days of Thankfulness and I’m going to post all 40 days here since I know that it will auto-post to Facebook and my blogs.

Although I have had several problems in my life (and who hasn’t?), I’m sure I can come up with at least 40 things I’m thankful for.  So starting later today, I’ll be posting them here.  Most were originally posted here.

 

Happy Halloween!

 

 

 

Load more