I arrived to tune a piano and noticed more than the normal amount of cars around. The extended family and a hospice caregiver were in the sitting room. The wife and mother, wanting proof that life would go on without her, requested that I tune her piano as planned. I never knew who finished first . . . . Denise On Feb 2, 2010, at 2:08 PM, Delwin D Fandrich wrote: > > > Delwin D Fandrich > Piano Design & Fabrication > 620 South Tower Avenue > Centralia, Washington 98531 USA > del at fandrichpiano.com > ddfandrich at gmail.com > Phone 360.736.7563 > > From: Delwin D Fandrich [mailto:del at fandrichpiano.com] > Sent: Tuesday, February 02, 2010 9:41 AM > To: 'pianotech at ptg.org' > Subject: RE: [pianotech] FW: Why schedules sometimes go pfffft. - > update > > I had driven some 300 miles to replace all of the tri-chord agrafes > on a Steinway B that had no end of string buzzes. I had driven down > to tune the piano and diagnose whatever might be causing the problem > several months earlier. This was during the 1970s and badly machined > agrafes were only part of this piano’s problems. But on my first > trip down I had not gone prepared to restring the tenor section of > the piano. Now it was time to fix everything. > > I arrived the day before the husband’s funeral! Family members were > sitting around in dark clothing and somber expressions. The wife was > clearly confused and distraught. And I was thinking, “Why didn’t > somebody let me know—I’d never have imposed myself on the family > under these conditions.” I apologized for my intrusion, extended my > condolences and prepared to cancel my hotel reservation and head > back north. Turned out they all wanted me to proceed. Even after > explaining how disruptive my work was going to be they would > accommodate. > > Seems it was the husband who had bought the piano as a surprise for > his wife. She’d been talking about always wanting to learn to play > the piano and he figured it was about time. Though he had been > virtually tone deaf with no appreciation of music at all he had been > more upset than she over the sound of the piano and its action > problems and during one of their last conversations together he made > her promise that she would get the piano fixed and keep on playing. > So it turned out that family really wanted the piano finished before > the funeral ended and he was ultimately buried. > > So, with the family as accommodating as possible, I made it with a > couple of hours to spare and everybody was as grateful as they could > be under the circumstances. Sometimes the schedule goes on…. > > ddf > > Delwin D Fandrich > Piano Design & Fabrication > 620 South Tower Avenue > Centralia, Washington 98531 USA > del at fandrichpiano.com > ddfandrich at gmail.com > Phone 360.736.7563 > > From: pianotech-bounces at ptg.org [mailto:pianotech-bounces at ptg.org] > On Behalf Of Terry Farrell > Sent: Tuesday, February 02, 2010 4:03 AM > To: pianotech at ptg.org > Subject: Re: [pianotech] FW: Why schedules sometimes go pfffft. - > update > > A while back I went to an appointment, knocked at the door and a > woman with red eyes and tears running down her face opened the door. > She said her husband had a heart attack and the ambulance rushed him > to the hospital, but she knew we had an appointment and she didn't > want me to arrive and find no one home - so she stayed home and > waited for me. > > Needless to say, I didn't tune her piano and told her to go to the > hospital instead. Gee, my schedule that day got goofed up - I'll > take that over her day any day! > > Terry Farrell -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <http://ptg.org/pipermail/pianotech.php/attachments/20100202/c059716b/attachment.htm>
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