Natalie...

I was given the most wonderful gift this weekend. Seventeen years ago, I taught piano

to three little girls and their mother who had moved here from Australia.

Last month I got an email from the eldest daughter, Natalie, who wanted to visit for several days. The family had moved back to Australia years ago, but Natalie was doing a trip around the US and meeting up with her family in New York and London in a few weeks.

I was mesmerized to know that an eleven year-old could have remembered me at all,

but to see her so many years later has been an amazing experience. She has given me so much

 more than she will ever know especially because her mother, my friend, had died of cancer
ten years ago. The family and I had been in touch, but to meet up with one of her daughters as
an adult, hug her and have her here for the weekend was just glorious to me.

I guess my piano teaching was never about teaching after all. Somehow I knew that.

Thank you, Louise, for being my friend and giving me the gift of your beautiful daughters

for I know that they will be in my life forever.

"People come into your life for a reason, a season, or a lifetime."

Myrene Hooper's favorite quote
(Louise's sister)

Natalie