Up to the Balcony, Part 1

Fairy shoes. I thought my mom had fairy shoes. When Mom played the organ, she would slip off her street shoes and put her organ shoes on to play the pedals. Her organ shoes had very pointy toes with tips that curled up slightly. I thought they looked like fairy shoes, although black is not a very fairy-like color.

My sister and I often went with Mom, up to the balcony. We listened to her playing the organ and also her singing. She sang solos often in church, accompanied by my first grade teacher who was the church organist. During one rehearsal, I tripped and fell up the stairs, hitting my head on an old radiator. I cut my head open. As head wounds do, the cut started bleeding profusely. Mom held a wet wash cloth on my head during our 35 mile drive to the nearest emergency room. These were the days of big cars with long bench seats — I sat next to my mom and lay my head down on her lap while my first grade teacher drove. I received a few stitches on my temple that day; the scar is still visible under my hair.

After that trip to the ER, I traipsed up the steps more times than I can count, up to the balcony, to watch Mom play the organ or practice her singing.

Watching an organist play the organ is like watching a carefully choreographed dance. Heels and toes glide gracefully across the pedals; hands and fingers play the keys and change the stops. Many organists also sing along with the hymns they are playing. Organists are the original multi-taskers.

The correlation between church music and organs had been firmly planted in my brain as a little girl. Imagine my amazement when I attended my first major league baseball game and heard an organ playing! Ta-da-da-da-ta-DA! CHARGE! My high school had an organ in the auditorium, and for four years I wondered why. Finally, during baccalaureate, I heard that organ play. And what a surprise to discover my physics teacher was the organist!

After I graduated from high school, I was off to Valparaiso University, where I heard an amazing organist play in the Chapel….

(to be continued)

A Good Story — YOUR Story

Technically, I never knew my grandma. But oh! The stories I know about her! I know that towards the end of her last pregnancy, she sat down in a chair and it broke. How her children laughed! And then subsequently were scolded by their father. Soon after, expecting one baby to be born, she delivered two bouncing baby boys! One was eight pounds, and the other nine. No wonder that poor chair broke…Grandma was carrying seventeen pounds of baby!

While I was never blessed to know my dear Grandma, I was blessed with a father (one of those bouncing baby boys), aunts and uncles who told many, many stories about their mom. And so, while I never met my grandma, I feel as though I know her.

As many of you know, my own mom died over a year ago. She fought desperately to stay here, to watch her precious granddaughters grow up. I am determined that my daughters will remember her and know her as they are growing up. Soon, I will be writing “Stories My Mother Told Me” at Mommy’s Piggy Tales, Janna Antenorcruz’s blog dedicated to storytelling.

Like me, Janna believes in the power of storytelling, and she describes why you should share your story in her new ebook, Share With Me: Someone NEEDS to Hear Your Story. Janna also gives practical advice on how to go about telling your story.

Janna speaks from the heart about why telling your stories IS important! Click here to view more details about Janna’s ebook. In Share With Me, Janna also includes stories from participants in her writing project “Mommy’s Piggy Tales.” (One of my stories, “Caught in a Blizzard,” is on page 17!) Janna is asking for a donation of $5 to $10 for her ebook, and included in the amount is the opportunity to tell your story during the next Mommy’s Piggy Tales session, starting February 3.

I’d love to read your stories, whether they are about you or your loved ones. Visit Mommy’s Piggy TALES to find out more!

Disclosure: If you buy Janna’s ebook by clicking one of the links above, as an affiliate of Janna’s I will receive a 50% commission.