http://www.snopes.com/glurge/music.asp

This is a true story and it may give you chills.



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 DesMoines, Iowa.
I have always supplemented my income by teaching piano lessons - something I have done for over 30 years.
During those 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 packedwith 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, 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 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, for he had taught me the meaning of perseverance and love and believing in yourself, and may be even taking a chance on someone and you didn't know why.

Robby was killed years later in the senseless bombing of the Alfred P. MurrayFederal Building in Oklahoma City in April, 1995.


And now, a footnote to the story.

Do we act with compassion or do we pass up that opportunity and leave the world a bit colder in the process?


You now have three choices:

1. Ignore what you have just read, and proceed to other threads...

2. Reply to this post in a positive manner...

3. Copy and forward it to the people you care about. You know the choice I made.

Thank you for reading this.

May God Bless you today, tomorrow and always.

If God didn't have a purpose for us, we wouldn't be here!


Live simply.

Love generously.

Care deeply.

Speak kindly.


Leave the rest to God.

And have a GREAT WEEK

One of the most touching pieces of fiction.

This story is one of the most touching lies perpetrated as if it had been a real event.

One of the most touching stories that moved me to think of the gullible people who take this sort of story at face value.

The most touching of stories that make me want to bash my head agaist the wall, of all the stories that I ever got in my email box and which end with "send it to ten friends".

One of the most touching stories that taught me finally how the majority of the most advanced country in this world can be convinced to vote the likes of George W. Bush into the white house the second time.

Well, here it is. Your nation has been trained and taught and brain-washed to shed all your critical abilities, all your better judgement. Those who think this story actually happened, are the favourite people of your nation, because the leaders of your nation can only operate your democracy if the voters in it have the mental and emotional tendencies like you, who believe this kind of story.