Rosemead Kiwanis Club
"Serving the Community Since 1945"
FAX OF
LIFE
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Rosemead Kiwanis Club "Serving the Community Since 1945" |
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FAX OF LIFE
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The Fax of Life
A weekly inspiration, courtesy of the Kiwanis Club of Scott's Valley
(distributed free by the Kiwanis Club of Rosemead, CA - rosemeadkiwanis.org )
April 19, 2009 Volume 14, Number 28
Robby
At the prodding of my friends I am writing this story. My name is Mildred Honor and I am a former elementary school music teacher from Des Moines, Iowa.For over 30 years I have supplemented my income by teaching piano lessons.
During these years I found that children have many levels of musical
ability, and even though I have never had the pleasure of having a
prodigy, I have taught some very talented students. However, I have also
had my share of what I call 'musically challenged' pupils - one such
pupil being Robby.
Robby was 11 years old when his mother (a single mom) dropped him off
for his first piano lesson. I prefer that students (especially boys)
begin at an earlier age, which I explained to Robby. But Robby said
that it had always been his mother's dream to hear him play the piano,
so I took him as a student.
Well, Robby began his piano lessons and from the beginning I thought it
was a hopeless endeavor. As much as Robby tried, he lacked the sense of
tone and basic rhythm needed to excel. But he dutifully reviewed his
scales and some elementary piano pieces that I require all my students
to learn.
Over the months he tried and tried while I listened and cringed and
tried to encourage him. At the end of each weekly lesson he would always
say 'My mom's going to hear me play someday'..
But to me, it seemed hopeless, he just did not have any inborn ability.
I 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 dropped in.
Then one day Robby stopped coming for
his lessons. I thought about calling him, but assumed that, because of
his lack of ability, he had decided to pursue something else. I was also
glad that he had stopped coming - he was a bad advertisement for my
teaching!
Several weeks later I mailed a flyer recital to the students' homes. To
my surprise, Robby (who had received a flyer) asked me if he could be in
the recital. I told him that the recital was for current pupils and that
because he had dropped out, he really did not qualify. He told me that
his mother had been sick and unable to take him to his piano lessons,
but that he had been practicing.
'Please Miss Honor, I've just got to
play' he insisted. I don't know what led me to allow him to play in the
recital - perhaps it was his insistence or maybe something inside of me
saying that it would be all right.
The night of the recital came and the high school gymnasium was packed
with parents, relatives and friends. I put Robby last in the program,
just before I was to come up and thank all the students and play a
finishing piece. I thought that any damage he might do would come at the
end of the program and I could always salvage his poor performance
through my 'curtain closer'.
Well, most of the recital went off without a hitch, the students had
been practicing and it showed. Then Robby came up on the stage. His
clothes were wrinkled and his hair looked as though he had run an egg
beater through it.
'Why wasn't he dressed up like the
other students?' I thought. 'Why didn't his mother at least make him
comb his hair for this special night?'
Robby pulled out the piano bench, and I was surprised when he announced
that he had chosen to play an excerpt from Mozart's Concerto No. 21 in C
Major. I was not prepared for what I heard next. His fingers were light
on the keys, they even danced nimbly on the ivories. He went from
pianissimo to fortissimo, from allegro to virtuoso; his suspended chords
that Mozart demands were magnificent! Never had I heard Mozart played so
well by anyone his age.
After six and a half minutes he ended in a grand crescendo, and everyone
was on their feet in wild applause! Overcome and in tears, I ran up on
stage and put my arms around Robby in joy. 'I have never heard you play
like that Robby, how did you do it?'
Through the microphone Robby
explained: 'Well, Miss Honor .... remember I told you that my mom was
sick? Well, she actually had cancer and passed away this morning. And
well ..... she was born deaf, so tonight was the first time she had ever
heard me play, and I wanted to make it special.'
There wasn't a dry eye in the house that evening. As the people from
Social Services led Robby from the stage to be placed in to foster care,
I noticed that even their eyes were red and puffy. I thought to myself
then how much richer my life had been for taking Robby as my pupil.
No, I have never had a prodigy, but that night I became a prodigy .... of Robby. He was the teacher and I was the pupil. He taught me the meaning of perseverance and love and believing in yourself, and maybe even taking a chance on someone and you didn't know why.
--- Contributed by Verna Brown
Editor's note: from what we can tell, this is the original version of what may or may not be based on a true story. Certain facts (Concerto #21 is a thirty minute work designed for ensemble presentation, not a solo, and doesn't lend itself well to truncation) are suspect. Another version, circulated since 2001, spells the teacher's name as Honorof and falsely claims that Robby went on to serve in the first Iraq war and then died in the Oklahoma City bombing of 1995. This version is demonstrably spurious.
Kiwanis is a global organization of volunteers dedicated to changing the world one child and one community at a time. All of its Clubs are independently-run community service groups.
The Kiwanis Club of Scott's Valley normally meets at the Heavenly Café in Scott's Valley, CA, on Wednesdays at 7 am - see the Scott's Valley Kiwanis website @ http://svkiwanis.org for details; The Kiwanis Club of Rosemead normally meets on Thursdays at 12:10 in Rosemead, CA - see the Rosemead Kiwanis website @ http://rosemeadkiwanis.org for confirmation and directions. Visitors are welcome to join meetings of either club anytime.
There is no charge to anyone for receiving the "Fax," which today is circulated by e-mail rather than literally by FAX. If you have been encouraged in any way by the message, pass it on by saying something encouraging to someone else during the week. To subscribe to the free weekly RKC Reporter, of which the "Fax" is an attachment, simply email kcrosemead@aol.com,
Neither the Scott's Valley or Rosemead Kiwanis Clubs make any representations as to the accuracy of quotes or actions attributed to named individuals; material selected for the Fax of Life comes from a variety of sources and is chosen based solely on its presumed inspirational value to readers.