| Each person has a lifetime of stories to share. As | | | | it for hours at a time. Then for a long time his |
| a child of divorce, I got to know my father when | | | | heart wasn't in it and the guitar gathered the dust |
| I was 16. That was the summer he shared his | | | | of loneliness.Cancer came into his life and the |
| love of guitar and music with me: I heard the | | | | guitar was summned to duty again, it was his life |
| stories of his wonderful, musical life.I spent many | | | | jacket. He played his music on good days and the |
| evenings listening to dad play, the music he wrote | | | | guitar waited when he was too weak. Last |
| and the pieces that had inspired him, stories of his | | | | September it was displayed beside a wreath of |
| musical past spinning in the air like sparks from a | | | | flowers and my father's ashes. It returned to its |
| campfire. We talked music theory like it was | | | | case and wasn't played since.As I grieve from |
| tabloid gossip and we made music together until | | | | losing my father, I am consoled by the stories |
| the sun was long past set and our fingers were | | | | other people have about my father. My mother |
| worn.There were some stories I never learned | | | | recently shared her story from a time when she |
| and I suppose he always thought there'd be time | | | | and he were first married and before I was born. |
| to eventually share all the details that made his | | | | She described how he sat cross-legged and |
| past up.I sometimes wonder what interested him | | | | hunched over in their tiny apartment, leaning into |
| in guitar and how old he was when he first | | | | his guitar and strumming softly. Mom says he |
| strummed the strings: E A D G B E. I suppose he | | | | always had a distant look of concentration as he |
| learned it from his mother when he could barely | | | | played his way through a song, like a scientist |
| speak, as she herself played. There are old | | | | bent over a microscope working things out. I |
| recordings with the children strumming vaguely | | | | know that face.That is how I remember him |
| familiar German folk songs, singing words I don't | | | | best, playing his music.Losing my father made me |
| understand.I frequently imagine my teenaged | | | | aware that every family has a thousand stories |
| father at the end of a line, flanked by his six | | | | bursting to shared. It was time for me to share |
| younger siblings lined up tallest to smallest, all of | | | | my father's stories with my four-year-old son, |
| them dressed in clothes made from drapes. I've | | | | Ryan. Time for him to understand our love for |
| added the dramatic climax where he decided to | | | | music and why I wept at night.It was like the |
| leave the family production, making a symbollic | | | | guitar was waiting for me this whole time, hoping |
| and shocking leap from "The Sound of | | | | I would pluck its heavy strings and pull out the |
| Music" to "A Hard Day's | | | | notes that were my father's life. I picked it up |
| Night."Dad did share the story of the time in | | | | and held it close; so much heavier than my hollow |
| his life when he discovered the raw sounds of the | | | | little violin. Large fingerprints on the varnish that |
| Beatles and Led Zeppelin in the 60's and | | | | won't be imprinted ever again, a scent of |
| abandoned his classical studies. Around that time | | | | cigarette smoke in the leather strap. I fumbled |
| he left home and met my mother. He grew his | | | | over a few chords I learned from watching him |
| hair out and learned the chords to songs that | | | | play so many summers ago.Ryan watched |
| made his parents' toes curl. He must have | | | | mesmerized, a familiar intensity filled his eyes and |
| mellowed with age, because I "met | | | | he understood what I was sharing with him. His |
| him" again he had returned to his classical | | | | sweet, compassionate voice swept away my pain |
| roots.Dad always had a quirky dream to play an | | | | as he asked gently "can I play Grandpa's |
| electric guitar with a large classical width neck, a | | | | guitar, please?"**Rhiannon Schmitt (nee |
| Frankenstein of an instrument that would merge | | | | Nachbaur) is a professional violinist and music |
| his love of classical and classic rock. So for two | | | | teacher who has enjoyed creative writing for |
| years he and I watched a luthier turn a shapeless | | | | years. She writes for two Canadian publications |
| chunk of wood into a stunning instrument. My | | | | and Australia's "Music Teacher Magazine. |
| father loved that guitar like a soulmate and played | | | | |