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A Wonderful Story

   Written by on December 11, 2014 at 1:47 pm

This story was sent to me by Kentucky cousins and should be shared.  This reporter thinks that it will be heart-warming for you as it was for her.

community-newsAt the prodding of friends, a former elementary school music teacher from Iowa, who supplemented her income by teaching piano lessons, related the following about one of her students.

She never had a child prodigy but taught some very talented students.  She also had her share of “musically challenged” pupils and one such student was Robby. He was 11 years old when his mother (a single Mom) dropped him off for his first piano lesson.

At the end of each week’s lesson, he would always say, ‘My Mom’s going to hear me play some day’. To this teacher, it seemed hopeless because he did not have any inborn ability.

This teacher only knew his mother from a distance as she dropped Robby off or waited in her aged car to pick him up.  She always waved and smiled but never came in.  Then one day Robby stopped coming for his lessons.  The teacher figured that he became discouraged because of his lack of ability.

The recital flyer was mailed out to the students’ homes.  To the teacher’s surprise, Robby (who had received a flyer) asked her if he could be in the recital.  She told him that the recital was for current pupils and that he really didn’t qualify.  He explained that his mother had been sick and unable to drive him for piano lessons but that he had been practicing.  His insistence touched the teacher and she told him that she would put him on the program.

The night of the recital came and the auditorium was packed with parents, relatives and friends.  Robby was listed last just before this piano teacher was to come up and thank everyone and play a finishing piece. She thought that any damage he would do to the program through his poor performance would be forgotten after she performed for the audience.

The recital went off without a hitch.  The students had been practicing and it showed. Then Robby came up on stage.  His clothes were wrinkled and his hair looked as though he had run an egg beater through it. Why wasn’t he dressed better and why didn’t his mother at least comb his hair?

Robby pulled out the piano bench and announced, to the teacher’s surprise, that he had chosen to play Mozart’s Concerto No. 21 in C Major.  The teacher was not prepared for what she heard next.  His fingers were light on the keys and seemed to dance over the ivories. Never had she heard Mozart played so well by anyone his age. After he ended his piece with a grand crescendo, everyone was on their feet in wild applause!

Overcome and in tears, the music teacher embraced Robby on stage and told him that she had never heard him play like that.  What had happened?  Robby reminded her that his Mother had been sick and had died that morning from cancer.  He went on to explain that his Mother was born deaf so tonight was the first time she had ever heard him play and he wanted to make it special.

Needless to say, there wasn’t a dry eye in the house. As the people from Social Services led Robby from the stage to be placed in foster care, everyone noticed that they had been crying, too.

No, this music teacher never had a child prodigy but that night she became a prodigy of Robby.  He was the teacher and she was the pupil for he had taught her the meaning of perseverance, love, believing in yourself, and maybe even taking a chance on someone and you didn’t know why.

So many seemingly trivial interactions between two people present us with a choice.  Do we act with compassion or do we pass up that opportunity and leave the world a bit colder in the process? Think about it.

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