A girl and her piano.

I promised a story, and can't decide which one to tell. This piano is full of stories. They swirl around it. There is the story that starts when I was five, sitting at the family upright in the green leather chair, plucking out notes. There is the story of my birthday, my husband's family calling to sing to me in unison, who's amazing generosity made this even possible. The story of last winter and the G-sharp. There is the story of the sheet music, my mother's writing on every book, her childhood nickname, 'Gwennie.' There is the story of the piano's first life, and the woman, Greta, who cried the day she met me, and again the day we came to take the piano, her grandmother's, back to our home. I hugged her and heard her stories too. It might have been an Auden poem. Life and death, and bittersweet.

And now it sits in my living room, and I think of all of them when I play it, rusty, working out the kinks in old songs I used to know. No longer playing by heart, I feel the keys and read my mothers' notes and notice the worn out edge of the middle C made by someone else's mother, and of my husband's mother and her mother who knew that more than anything, I would want this for my home. For it to continue. 

A piano is more than an instrument. 

All love,

*Andrea

Comments

[Suz Broughton]

I would love my seven-year-old to learn how to play. She has no interest, but does that mean it isn't worth pressing the issue a little?
It has been on my mind lately, this post reminds me, it IS more than an instrument.
Maybe press a little more...

[sharis]

my friends all took piano lessons as children. i was never interested. only recently have i been enamored with the piano. there are lots of free pianos in vermont. i'm so tempted. t knows how to play just a bit. lovely stories. i'm glad this beauty has a great new home. xox

[nik]

I know how much this means to you and am so thrilled that you're able to bask in all those rich memories. Therapy.

(Now will you go play "With or Without You" for me? For old time's sake?)

[emily]

we have always had a piano in our home - it was in my home when i was a child and now it's in my home as an adult. nobody plays much (yet or anymore or right now), but i can't imagine living without it.

[Rachel]

I got a Shultz Pollman piano about 6 years ago, and i could never let it go now. Even in its short life, there are so many stories surrounding the instrument. And you are right, it's more than an instrment it's a piece of art. Thanks for a beautiful story :-)

[Carolina]

So sweet. Here's to hoping the rocket develops a love of instruments too.

[julia]

lovely. i never played piano, but my grandparents always had on in their house that i always loved to pretend to play on. pretty much as far as i got was my grandma teaching me to play chopsticks. i like to think that counts a little bit.