Mom Keeps Me In Pianos

Today I want to tell you about my mom. I often refer to her as my biggest fan, because she loves following every little thing I do and bragging about it to her friends. She's like this with all of her children, not just me, but I want to tell you about a very special thing she has done for me.

Since the day I was born, I have always had a piano to play. Mom was blessed to inherit a lovely Steinway baby grand from her parents, so even when I was a little baby in a family of modest means, I had a piano.

Fast forward several years. When I married, I moved to Texas so that my husband could go to grad school. Mom went out and bought me a Roland electric piano with a full-size keyboard of weighted keys as well as damper and soft pedals (or the electric equivalent). She would not have me living half a country away with no piano in my little house.

Later, when my husband had finished his masters degree and our family had grown by one, we moved to Florida. Our house was quite a bit larger then, so Mom reasoned that I should have the Steinway her parents had given her. She paid for shipping, and there I was with a Steinway baby grand as well as the Roland electric piano.

Time passed. Our family grew to four, and we moved back to our home state and into a smaller house than we'd had in Florida. I had begun teaching piano from home by then, and Mom decided to give me another piano...this time a Yamaha upright equipped with a Disklavier which she had bought for herself a few years earlier. She thought it was more important that I have it.

So we worked out the one furniture arrangement that would accommodate two pianos in our tiny living room. I passed the Roland down to my younger brother, and my teaching studio became a two-piano enterprise. A few years later, we moved into a bigger house in which we and the pianos could spread out. Then Mom bought me an adjustable artist's bench.

Sometimes I take these instruments for granted, but everyone should know that I have never bought a piano in my life. They've all come from my mom.