The Day The Music Died

The following story happened about 11 years ago on the days leading up to Good Friday and afterward. I can't remember the woman's name but she reminded me of Aunt Bea from the old Andy Griffith Show, so I guess I'll refer to her as just that:

Aunt Bea would come into the music store every two weeks to listen and purchase new song tracks to sing in church. She would spend at least half an hour listening, carefully studying the words and and on occassion hum the tunes. Sometimes she would even ask if I'd mind her singing out loud. In order to make the customer happy of course I was going to oblige. But this woman, well..let's just say that she brought new meaning to the scripture: make a joyful noise unto the Lord. Even though her voice would crackle and be off key at times, she sang with great confidence and joy, and I could tell that nothing or no one was ever going to take that away from her.

A week before Easter she came in to buy a background track to sing for the Good Friday service.

Little did I know that would be the last time I would see her for quite some time. A whole month had passed and no sign of Aunt Bea. Then one day a young lady came in looking to buy some songbooks for her church choir. She was newly appointed as the music director at her church. As we chatted I suddenly realized she was from the same church as Aunt Bea. I described to her what Aunt Bea looked like and began my investigation:

"Where is she? Is she okay? Haven't seen her in awhile, did she move?"

With a hesitation in her voice she answered,

"She's okay. She just stopped singing."

"She stopped singing?" I asked loudly. "What on earth would ever stop her from singing? That was her passion."

The young woman would then explain what had happened:

At the Good Friday Service Aunt Bea was singing a duet with the choir director. The old hymn

It Is Finished was their selection. Just as they finished singing the first verse the music director grabbed his chest in pain and fell to the ground. In front of a very large gathering of parishioners the man died of a heart attack.

And thus putting an end to the enjoyment of singing for this sweet old lady.

To be continued...