A LESSON TO US ALL ......
A lesson to us all , please read onAs a bagpiper, I play many gigs. Recently I was asked by a funeral director to play at a graveside service for a homeless man. He had no family or friends, so the service was to be at a pauper's cemetery in the Kentucky back country. As I was not familiar with the backwoods, I got lost and, being a typical man, I didn't stop for directions.
I finally arrived an hour late and saw the funeral guy had evidently gone and the hearse was nowhere in sight. There were only the diggers and crew left and they were eating lunch. I felt badly and apologized to the men for being late. I went to the side of the grave and looked down and the vault lid was already in place. I didn't know what else to do, so I started to play.
The workers put down their lunches and began to gather around. I played out my heart and soul for this man with no family and friends. I played like I've never played before for this homeless man. And as I played 'Amazing Grace,' the workers began to weep. They wept, I wept, we all wept together.
When I finished I packed up my bagpipes and started for my car. Though my head hung low, my heart was full.
As I opened the door to my car, I heard one of the workers say, "I ain't never seen nothin' like that before and I've been puttin' in septic tanks for twenty years."
Apparently I'm still lost....
Comments (7)
I play the chanter (self taught)and still tear up at "Amazing Grace". The people of the Appalachians are of Scots-Irish ancestry. Of people who suffered hundreds of years of oppression.Good, hard working, strong people with an indomitable will and an independent spirit not often seen.
P.S. Did you get that new pair of eyeglasses yet?
I don't know the whole story of the family, but her youngest daughter was there alone to say hello and goodbye to her. She was there alone, and she asked me to stand by her. We stood together and she said a few words, her voice raw with emotion as she read the words to a poem that she had written. The only other people there were the cemetery workers, waiting respectfully and solemnly to fill in and cover the grave.
It was one of the few moments that touched my heart, for this daughter who was grieving for her mother that she had just started to know (as they'd be separated) ..... she had found some of her diaries and learned much about this woman who was her mother through her inner most thoughts and feelings.