The Dormant Winner in us all:
The story that follows tells us the meaning of perseverance and love and believing in oneself.
It is a true to life story
My name is Mildred Honor. I am a former elementary school music teacher from Des Moines, Iowa.
I have supplemented my income by teaching piano lessons for over 30 years.
I found that children have many levels of musical ability even though I have never had the prodigy. I have taught some very talented students. However, I have also had my share of what I call 'Musically Challenged Pupils'.
One such pupil was Robby. Robby was 11 years old when his nother (a single mom) dropped him off for his first piano lesson.
Robby told me that it had always been his nother's dream to hear him play the piano. At the end of each weekly lesson he would always say 'My mom's going to hear me play someday.' To me, it seemed hopeless. He just did not have any inborn ability.
I only knew his mother from a distance as she dropped Robby off or waited in her aged car to pick him up. She always waved and smiled, but never dropped in;
Then one day Robby stopped coming for his lessons. I thought about calling him,
but assumed that because of his lack of his ability he had decided to pursue something else.
Several weeks later, I mailed a flyer recital to my students' homes. To my surprise,
Robby asked if he could be in the recital.
I told him that the recital was for current pupils and that because he had dropped out, he really did not qualify.
He told me that his mother had been sick and unable to take him to his piano lessons, and that he had been practicing at home on his own. He continued saying 'please Miss Honor, I've just got to play.'
I don't know what led me to allow him to play in the recital. Perhaps it was his insistence or maybe something inside me saying that it would be all right;
The night of the recital came and the high school gymnasium was packed with parents, their relatives and friends.
I put Robby last in the program, just before I was to thank all the students and play a finishing piece.
I thought that any damage he might do would come at the end of the program and I could always salvage his poor performance through my 'Curtain Closer'.
Well, the recital went off without a hitch,
the students had been practicing and it showed.
Then Robby came up on the stage. His clothes were wrinkled and his hair looked as though he had run an egg beater through it. 'Why wasn't he dressed up like the other students?' I wondered.
'Why didn't his mother at least make him comb his hair for this special night?'
Robby pulled out the piano bench, and sat on it. I was surprised when he announced that he had chosen to play Mozart's Concerto No.21 in C Major.
I was not prepared for what I heard. His fingers were light on the keys, they even danced nimbly on the ivories. He went from Pianissimo to Fortissimo, fromvAllegro to Virtuoso; his suspended chords that Mozart demands were magnificent!
Never had I heard Mozart's piece played so well by anyone his age.
After six and a half minutes, he ended in a grand crescendo, and everyone was on their feet in a wild well deserved applause!!!
I ran up on to stage, overcome and in tears, and put my arms around Robby in joy;
'I have never heard you play like that Robby. How did you do it?' Robby explained: 'Well, Miss Honor, remember I told you that my mom was sick. Well, she actually had cancer and passed qway this morning.
And well... he continued, she was born deaf, so tonight was the first time she had ever heard me play, and I wanted to make
it special.
There wasn't a dry eye in the house that evening. As people from the Social Services led Robby from the stage to be placed in to foster care, I noticed that even their eyes were red and puffy.
I thought to myself, how much richer my life had been for taking Robby as my pupil.
I have never had a prodigy, but that night
I became a prodigy of Robby.
He was my teacher and I was his pupil that day, for he had taught me the meaning of perseverance and love and believing in oneself.
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