My grandmother's gift
Taking piano lessons was something that was decided for me, although I'm sure I had showed some interest at first. I was around 7 years old when my parents enrolled me for a class. As we moved around after they separated, the lessons continued with a couple different teachers depending on where we lived. When we immigrated to the United States in 1988, it was hard to find a teacher we trusted or with rates we could afford. So Lola (Tagalog for grandmother) took on that role while she lived with us and was easily the most persistent of my instructors and the toughest one I have ever had.
Lola spent a lot of time on the piano bench as my drill sargent. While living with them in Manila, she required I practice everyday for at least an hour. It was the condition before I got to play outside and the threat if I refused to take a nap. I used to dread it. She was not very grandmother-ly sitting next to me, requiring even the finger exercises were just right. To this day, when I get to squeeze in a practice session, I start my repertoire just the way she taught -- just the same way she played for nearly nine decades.
As a youngster growing up in pre-World War II Philippines, playing the piano was treated as an integral part of her education by my great-grandparents. Unlike me, she happily spent hours practicing and on weekends, she woke early and headed directly for the piano. She would break for meals and then it was back to the bench for her. All that time paid off as she played wonderfully up until she suffered from a stroke the summer of 2017 at the age of 93.
I can still hear the pieces she played to perfection. Her piano was on the opposite side of the wall my bed was up against. My sister and I spent many afternoons being lulled to sleep by her music, the wall beside me slightly vibrating. My favorite is "Love and Devotion" by Louis A. Drumheller. Until the video I linked it to, I haven't heard anyone play it quite like Lola. It relaxes me automatically -- a likely case of Pavlov's classical conditioning from my napping days in third grade. And although I knew the church instrumentalist would not perform it the way she did, I selected this song as a processional at my wedding. It was the song Lola walked down the aisle to, escorted by my cousin, Adrian, who is her only son's only son.
After her stroke, she lost the ability to do certain things. She can no longer walk or speak. For some time, she received meals using a feeding tube. I have not seen her since Adrian himself got married in 2015. I miss her terribly and am looking forward to our trip in November so that she can finally meet Kennedy. There is a lot of time between now and then so I allocate many prayers on her deteriorating health and memory. She IS 95 after all.
And as I wait, I intend to brush up on my scales and agility exercises over the piano keys, just so they sound as similar as possible to how she remembered them. I want to play for her the way I once did, with her wheelchair parked next to me. It is very unlikely I will learn to play "Love and Devotion" before our trip with all my other obligations and responsibilities. But I will learn it one day and my girls will grow up hearing it and hopefully feel a connection to my Lola.
Grace will begin her first lessons with me this summer -- I want to gauge her interest before paying an instructor to do something I can do and only for her to quit after I am hundreds of dollars in the red. Whether or not she and Kennedy take much to it, at least I would have tried to pass on Lola's legacy. That alone is worth the attempt...
Lola spent a lot of time on the piano bench as my drill sargent. While living with them in Manila, she required I practice everyday for at least an hour. It was the condition before I got to play outside and the threat if I refused to take a nap. I used to dread it. She was not very grandmother-ly sitting next to me, requiring even the finger exercises were just right. To this day, when I get to squeeze in a practice session, I start my repertoire just the way she taught -- just the same way she played for nearly nine decades.
As a youngster growing up in pre-World War II Philippines, playing the piano was treated as an integral part of her education by my great-grandparents. Unlike me, she happily spent hours practicing and on weekends, she woke early and headed directly for the piano. She would break for meals and then it was back to the bench for her. All that time paid off as she played wonderfully up until she suffered from a stroke the summer of 2017 at the age of 93.
I can still hear the pieces she played to perfection. Her piano was on the opposite side of the wall my bed was up against. My sister and I spent many afternoons being lulled to sleep by her music, the wall beside me slightly vibrating. My favorite is "Love and Devotion" by Louis A. Drumheller. Until the video I linked it to, I haven't heard anyone play it quite like Lola. It relaxes me automatically -- a likely case of Pavlov's classical conditioning from my napping days in third grade. And although I knew the church instrumentalist would not perform it the way she did, I selected this song as a processional at my wedding. It was the song Lola walked down the aisle to, escorted by my cousin, Adrian, who is her only son's only son.
After her stroke, she lost the ability to do certain things. She can no longer walk or speak. For some time, she received meals using a feeding tube. I have not seen her since Adrian himself got married in 2015. I miss her terribly and am looking forward to our trip in November so that she can finally meet Kennedy. There is a lot of time between now and then so I allocate many prayers on her deteriorating health and memory. She IS 95 after all.
And as I wait, I intend to brush up on my scales and agility exercises over the piano keys, just so they sound as similar as possible to how she remembered them. I want to play for her the way I once did, with her wheelchair parked next to me. It is very unlikely I will learn to play "Love and Devotion" before our trip with all my other obligations and responsibilities. But I will learn it one day and my girls will grow up hearing it and hopefully feel a connection to my Lola.
Grace will begin her first lessons with me this summer -- I want to gauge her interest before paying an instructor to do something I can do and only for her to quit after I am hundreds of dollars in the red. Whether or not she and Kennedy take much to it, at least I would have tried to pass on Lola's legacy. That alone is worth the attempt...
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