• About Me
  • My Breast Cancer Story
  • Publications
  • Cookie Policy (US)

Lemon Drop Pie

~ Motherhood after breast cancer

Lemon Drop Pie

Category Archives: music

Night at the Opera II

13 Tuesday Mar 2012

Posted by Ginny Marie in marriage, music

≈ 8 Comments

Tags

Chicago, Ed, Lyric Opera

I was a little suspicious when Ed told me to try on the new oven mitts. he had just given me for my birthday. But I put one on anyway. “Buka Buka!” I said, making my mitt talk to my giggling girls.

“You’d better try on the other one, too, just in case!” Ed said. Okaaaaay…now I was more than a little suspicious! So I tried on the other oven mitt, and pulled out two tickets to the opera! I guess he was serious last year when he told me he would go to the opera again.

When the day of the opera finally arrived, I looked into the mirror and carefully applied eye liner. I had to laugh that while I was preparing to go listen to Verdi’s Aida, my children were blasting Taylor Swift’s CD in my bedroom.

As Ed and I sat in our car on the Kennedy, we could see the Chicago skyline glistening in the late afternoon sun. But we weren’t getting any closer to our destination; we were stuck in gridlock traffic! We could have taken the ‘L’, but getting onto a dirty train dressed in our opera finery was not appealing.

We finally arrived at the restaurant, 30 minutes late. Fortunately, there was still a table for us. When our food was served, I took a bite right away…I was starving! When Ed said his seafood stew looked so pretty, I had to have him take a picture…it did look pretty! (It was called something much fancier on the menu, but I will never be able to remember what it was. Seafood stew will have to do.)

Ed's seafood stew

It was a lovely evening and we strolled hand-in-hand to the Lyric Opera House. The vestibule was full of people trying to get in; men were out front holding up fingers for the number of tickets they needed. Aside from the tuxedos and heels, it was almost like a sporting event.

We made it to our seats, and the music began. Ah! It was so beautiful! Hearing a live orchestra is so wonderful; the singers were amazing; the whole experience…amazing! I don’t even want to try to find a recording to share with you, because it just wouldn’t be the same as a live performance.

Aidahas four acts, and there were two intermissions. Part of the fun of going to the opera is people watching; we saw men in tuxedos and T-shirts; women in furs; some fabulous dresses and some not so fab.

View from the Mezzanine

View from the Mezzanine

We both came home with stars in our eyes. *sigh*

If you were able to go to an opera or musical, what would you like to see?

signature

Please share!

  • Email a link to a friend (Opens in new window) Email
  • Share on X (Opens in new window) X
  • Share on Facebook (Opens in new window) Facebook
  • Share on Pinterest (Opens in new window) Pinterest

Like this:

Like Loading…

Voice Lessons

12 Sunday Feb 2012

Posted by Ginny Marie in music

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

grief, memory, Mom

The two of us huddle together under the grand piano while Frances plays and Mom sings. My little sister and I are coloring. We take the trip down to Champaign-Urbana every week for my mom’s voice lessons. On the weekends, we are with my mom up in the balcony as she sings solos at weddings and funerals and our first grade teacher accompanies her on the organ. It is the very balcony where, with my gangly arms and legs, I trip up some carpeted steps and cut my head open on the radiator. My mom holds my head in her lap staunching the bloody cut while my first grade teacher drives us to the emergency room, 35 miles away, in the same city where Mom takes voice lessons.

Then, for a few years, voice lessons are on hold. My little brother and other little sister have arrived, and there is no time for voice lessons. But the singing in church remains. Praising God with song always remains.

All four of us grow up. Mom begins taking voice lessons again, this time in Chicago.

I accompany my mom to auditions, to support her and calm her nerves.  Mom wears her grandmother’s confirmation ring on her thumb for good luck. Her other fingers are too slender to wear the golden band. She sings her signature piece from Handel’s Messiah over and over again:

 Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion; Shout, O daughter of Jerusalem: behold, thy King cometh unto thee.

One choir rejects her. But another one accepts her! She has the perfect voice for baroque music, and becomes a singer with Ars Musica Chicago. She has the opportunity to perform in the chorus of an opera, La púrpura de la rosa, and I am in the audience, shouting “Bravo!”

As the years go by, Mom becomes an elementary school music teacher, and leads her students in song. When she has retires from teaching, she helps my dad with chapel time at their church’s daycare, and teaches little preschool children how to praise God with song. Mom joyfully becomes a grandma. She rocks my babies and sings them to sleep.

And in that last year, even though the radiation to her skull steals not just her hair but her singing voice as well, she sings to my children in a whisper.

I am Jesus’ little lamb; Ever glad at heart I am. For my Shepherd gently guides me; Knows my needs and well provides me. Loves me every day the same; even calls me by my name.

Praising God with song always remains. I imagine she is still praising God with her singing.

 

signature

 

Written in memory of my mom, Loreeta Brammeier, Sept. 16, 1942-Nov. 23, 2009

Please share!

  • Email a link to a friend (Opens in new window) Email
  • Share on X (Opens in new window) X
  • Share on Facebook (Opens in new window) Facebook
  • Share on Pinterest (Opens in new window) Pinterest

Like this:

Like Loading…
← Older posts
Newer posts →

♣ Subscribe

  • Entries (RSS)
  • Comments (RSS)

♣ Archives

  • June 2026
  • June 2024
  • December 2021
  • April 2020
  • March 2020
  • November 2018
  • August 2018
  • November 2017
  • August 2017
  • July 2017
  • June 2017
  • April 2017
  • March 2017
  • February 2017
  • January 2017
  • December 2016
  • November 2016
  • September 2016
  • August 2016
  • July 2016
  • June 2016
  • May 2016
  • March 2016
  • February 2016
  • January 2016
  • December 2015
  • November 2015
  • October 2015
  • September 2015
  • August 2015
  • July 2015
  • June 2015
  • May 2015
  • April 2015
  • March 2015
  • February 2015
  • January 2015
  • December 2014
  • November 2014
  • October 2014
  • September 2014
  • August 2014
  • July 2014
  • June 2014
  • May 2014
  • April 2014
  • March 2014
  • February 2014
  • January 2014
  • December 2013
  • November 2013
  • October 2013
  • September 2013
  • August 2013
  • July 2013
  • June 2013
  • May 2013
  • April 2013
  • March 2013
  • February 2013
  • January 2013
  • December 2012
  • November 2012
  • October 2012
  • September 2012
  • August 2012
  • July 2012
  • June 2012
  • May 2012
  • April 2012
  • March 2012
  • February 2012
  • January 2012
  • December 2011
  • November 2011
  • October 2011
  • September 2011
  • August 2011
  • July 2011
  • June 2011
  • May 2011
  • April 2011
  • March 2011
  • February 2011
  • January 2011
  • December 2010
  • November 2010
  • October 2010
  • September 2010
  • August 2010
  • July 2010
  • June 2010
  • May 2010
  • April 2010
  • March 2010
  • February 2010
  • January 2010
  • December 2009
  • November 2009
  • October 2009
  • September 2009
  • August 2009
  • July 2009
  • June 2009
  • May 2009
  • April 2009
  • March 2009
  • February 2009
  • January 2009
  • December 2008
  • November 2008
  • October 2008
  • September 2008
  • June 2008

♣ Categories

  • book nook
  • breast cancer
  • creativity
  • faith
  • family
  • food
  • marriage
  • Miscellaneous
  • motherhood
  • music
  • social media
  • teaching
  • travel
  • Uncategorized
  • writing

♣ Meta

  • Log in

Proudly powered by WordPress Theme: Chateau by Ignacio Ricci.

Manage Cookie Consent
We use cookies to optimize our website and our service.
Functional cookies Always active
The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
Preferences
The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
Statistics
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes. The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
Marketing
The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.
  • Manage options
  • Manage services
  • Manage {vendor_count} vendors
  • Read more about these purposes
View preferences
  • {title}
  • {title}
  • {title}

Loading Comments...

    %d