Growing Up ( part II)

She was the prettiest girl in the school. Maybe even the whole world (at least in the world of a five-year old boy).

She was my first love. We held hands at church. But now there was a bigger universe, kindergarten. There was competition everywhere. It didn’t take long before our relationship changed. But then at five years old, what is time? It may have been the first day of school; it may have taken weeks, or months. But the “romance” was over and we were relegated to friends. We ice-skated together on the flooded field behind her house with our older brothers. We collected old newspapers for the church youth group fund-raisers, again with our older brothers. We sang in the choir together and learned to play hand-bells.

Like most third graders my social world was limited. In my case there were two; school and church. School was a nightmare. Mrs. Cochran, the third grade teacher, the witch, was up to her misguided attack. For six hours each day Monday through Friday, I was miserable. Weekends were a refuge and a time to forget. It was also a time to heal. I found healing from family, and church activities. Church and home…places where I could be me. Don & Janet were at church, and the absolute and complete opposite of Mrs. Cochran was Janet’s’ Mom; Mrs. Chidsey.

Mrs. Chidsey was the church choir director. She was everybody’s mom at church. She had the warmest most caring smile. She knew everything about music. She knew how to make everyone feel important, and feel good about ourselves. She directed the adult choir, she directed the teen choir, the children’s choir and the hand-bell choir. She taught us not only about music but also about performance. She put her soul into our performances and taught us how to put our souls into those performances as well. She wrote the special holiday plays and pageants. She made the costumes, she fed us, she loved us, and she made me feel special. She smoothed over the damage of the third grade teacher.

I knew at the time that she was a special person, but it wasn’t until I was an adult that I realized how much she meant to me. As I began performing and directing performances I realized just how much Mrs. Chidsey taught me. She taught me how to be professional. She instilled in me a love for sacred music.

A few years ago, at the end of a concert with the Cleveland Orchestra Chorus, I had a chance to speak with the great choral director; Robert Page. I thanked him for allowing me the opportunity to sing in his chorus. I said that I remembered my audition as being atrocious and that I appreciated his taking a chance on me. He told me that he remembered my audition as well and confirmed that it was pretty bad. Then he went on to say that he accepted me in the chorus because he believed I had the vocal talent, but more importantly he saw that I had "music in my soul". I thought at that moment; "God gave me the gift of voice. Mrs. Chidsey opened it."