Normally musicians don’t like it when people talk on cell phone during a performance. But this was an exception.
At my weekly visit to the senior care facility, the activities director asked me to play for Beatrice a lady I had played for many times. Only this time, the Beatrice was dying.
Her daughter Joyce welcomed me into the room. Beatrice looked unresponsive but I greeted her in my warmest voice then asked “What’s her favorite song?”
“I Come to the Garden Alone. Or How Great Thou Art,” Joyce responded. Both are also on my list of favorite hymns so it was easy to stand as near to the raised bed as I could and trickle the melody into half open ears. Then I noticed the daughter had pulled out her cell phone and was calling someone.
I can’t say my first impulse was gracious.
Then I heard she was calling her sister.
“There’s a harpist here to play for mom and since you can’t be here because of your surgery, I thought I would put you on speaker phone.”
I moved into How Great Thou Art and a static voice “Beautiful!” came from the small phone’s speakers.
So I played for the three women of the Crum family, one on a cell phone, on in a coma and one crying. I cried too.
A few weeks later I received this email and Joyce gave me permission to share it with you.
Hi Anna! I wanted to take the opportunity to thank you for visiting my mother Beatrice Crum. You played her favorite song. My blessed mother died 2/7/14. She had an intense love of music especially hymns. I know if she had been able, she would have been singing along. Your gift to her and to me meant so very much. I felt God’s presence. I purchased one of your CD’s and we played it during her visitation. Thank you again for the blessing and the gift you gave us. Gratefully–Joyce
So for a change, I didn’t mind a cell phone during my performance–it helped connect a family with a song. But the connection I witnessed between these women transcended technology or favorite songs. It was a shared faith.
“He speaks, and the sound of His voice,
Is so sweet the birds hush their singing,
And the melody that He gave to me
Within my heart is ringing.”
–I Come to the Garden