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Strumming through the trials
Last week Wednesday while at work I got a call from my brother who lives in VA letting me know that my mother was taken to the hospital with possible heart failure from a Wednesday church service.
I am the closest kid my folks have geographically, so I left work to go to the hospital, and was shocked to get there and find my mother in an induced coma and on a breathing machine. She had congestive heart failure mixed with bacterial pneumonia. Dad was obviously a wreck, and I got him home. She just woke from her coma today, thank God, and we got to talk to her. Because of covid, we still can’t go see her, but she is on the mend.
My Dad can’t drive himself and my niece, who is a live-in care giver for my folks has 7 kids and can’t leave on the second if something happens, so I have been spending my days at my Dad’s (from 8am-11pm)….
I haven’t done a single daily exercise this week, but I have spent a lot of time playing guitar and ukulele with my Dad. That has been a great stress reliever for him, and he even came on an open mic on Friday night (though the equipment left something to be desired). Every time he seemed to be getting too stressed, off we went to the music room to play for a while. My kids came with me and my daughter played with us often, and took over ukulele lessons for the younger kids to keep them busy.
I think if guitar wasn’t something we had in common things would have been more difficult for him emotionally. We even went so far as to go to my Aunt’s house to play songs for her that my uncle used to. My uncle passed in December, and she was very happy to have us play for her and has asked us to come play once a month.
It wasn’t until this year with all the tragedy and stress that I realized just how important guitar is to my family culture, and always has been to my elders.
Anyway long thread, thought I would share what the guitar can do for an entire family, even for those that just listen and sing along.
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