How Great Thou Art!

The year we lost our farm due to the economy, recession, and the purchase of the building and business in Valley City that unfortunately did not belong to the person that we purchased it from was filled with trauma and anger.

When the dust settled, and the bankruptcy court sold our biggest asset, the farm we owned for 18 years, we had to move to a new home. We chose to purchase a mobile home (with the help of Tim's brother Bill) in Brookdale "Trailer" park in Medina.

One of my prized possessions, the Wurlitzer spinet that my estranged mother taught hundreds of children to play piano on could not fit through the door of the trailer. Our friends Joanne and Bob Dushenke gave it a spot in their family room, alongside their beautiful organ. "Only until you get a house again", said Joanne. The years passed by a little too quickly, three to be exact when I heard news from two different people.

One bit of news from Joanne "Bob and I are moving to Millersburg, and we won't be able to take your piano" and "The congregation says moving the church's old piano (which was on very big casters) from the church hall to the sanctuary one Sunday a month for the children's choir to march down the aisle and sing in front of it accompanying them is going to ruin the carpeting in the sanctuary", said my friend Tama McAleese, the choir director.

Hmmm said I!

Of course, the Wurlitzer that my mother used to earn her living for all those years in Cleveland Hts., was moved carefully to the Emmanuel United Church of Christ in Valley City, where it proudly sits in front of the choir seats on the right of the alter.

My mother could play like the devil was chasing her, and she loved to sing along.

I was asked to give the "guest" sermon shortly after the piano was safely housed at the church.
I spoke of the woman who so dearly loved that piano, and how she had paid Bill Kapp, the piano and organ studio owner weekly from the rent that her boarders paid, so she could own that shiny beauty. She would come to the house a couple times a year and ask if she could play the piano. The Wurlitzer had been replaced in her life with a beautiful baby grand. Her students would gather around and perform recitals and Christmas pageants.

Anyway, she would always ask to play the Wurlitzer.

The music that I remember most was her playing and singing with gusto the spiritual "How Great Thou Art" (as sung by George Beverly Shea). She would end the hymn with a resounding "Amen" seemingly playing all of the keys on the piano at once.

The dedication of the piano allowed me to settle some long held anger towards my late mother
and I told of her singing that hymn. As I paused to speak the next paragraph of my speech that I noticed movement in the aisle of the church. As I had told the story of "How Great Thou Art", my friend and choir director Tama had slowly come down the stairs from the choir loft and made her way down the center aisle of the church. She pulled out the piano bench, sat down, and without making eye contact with me, proceeded to play that wonderful and emotional spiritual
"How Great Thou Art" and sang with all the gusto that I remembered my mother expressing.

There wasn't a dry eye in the house, including mine!

Thank you to my friend Jo Ann Wingfield for writing her blog this morning about her beloved spinet piano.

It brought a wave of memories to me!