Moving Pianos
31/12/12 04:58
We moved a piano yesterday after church. Crews from our church have moved a lot of pianos over the years. I suppose that one of the reasons is that we love music. Our building is graced with some magnificent instruments. We have a 9’2” concert grand in the front of our sanctuary and a 6’ grand in the balcony to accompany the choir. We have brought in additional 9’ pianos on two occasions for the joy of hearing piano duets. We genuinely love the sound of piano music and part of having pianos is moving pianos.
But we also find ourselves moving pianos because we love people. That is what happened yesterday. Without telling the whole story, a little background is necessary. Our congregation is a gathering place for retired ministers. At times we have had as many as ten retired clergy in the congregation. Add that to the three of us who are on staff and another minister who is the chaplain at our hospital, and a very well-trained lay minister who has graduated from the Yankton College theology program and there are a lot of minister types hanging around. Nothing draws a crowd like a crowd and so the table in the fellowship hall with a bunch of ministers talking theology after most worship services is attractive to other retired or retiring ministers who happen to visit and the number continues to grow. It is really good for the active pastors to have this crowd around us. There is always a ready hand to help when we need assistance. There are special occasions when we serve communion by having the congregation come forward as opposed to our usual of serving in the pews. We can set up five or more stations staffed by ministers to quickly serve our congregation.
And we ministers tend to form households full of things that are hard to move. We love books and books are heavy. And many of us love music, so there is usually a piano thrown into the mix.
One of our retired ministers has had to move into a nursing home recently. He lost his wife to heard disease suddenly a couple of years ago and has been living independently in their townhouse, but the time came when complications of his diabetes and other health problems meant that he could not longer live alone even with daily assistance from health care workers. So his children assisted with the move and they put his house on the market so that his assets could be used for his care. They didn’t expect a quick sale in the downturned economy. But we are often surprised. Just before Christmas they received a cash offer for the house and the buyer needs to close the deal by the end of the year for tax purposes. So, they had only a week to empty the house. And there was a lot of stuff in that house.
The piano was a family heirloom. It had been the piano of the grandmother of the adult children who were responsible for cleaning out the house. They loved that old piano, but none of them had a place for it. They called the church offering the piano “free to a good home.” It is a quality console piano, the kind of instrument often used for teaching in schools. People at the church got on the phone and went to work to help the family struggling to deal with all of the things in the house. Working with the Red Cross, we were able to get furniture to a family who had lost everything in a house fire. There were even some toys for the children, who were excited to begin with at the prospect of having beds to sleep on. There were clothes to go to the thrift store, some tools to go to the Habitat for Humanity ReStore, and theological books to go to the Eagle Butte Learning Center. There were a couple of boxes to be put in storage for the church rummage sale.
And, yes, we found a home for the piano. A young family in our church has a mother who plays the flute and loves music. Her mother-in-law is a cellist and music teacher. The father of the family was raised in a musical family and always thought that his home would have a piano. Everyone was delighted with the match. Everything was falling into place. But the piano had to be moved before 10 a.m. on December 31. So after church we assembled a crew to move the piano. Everyone on the crew had a direct connection to the adventure. A couple of our lifters had been special friends with the retired minister and were happy to meet his daughters. The new owners of the piano recruited relatives to help. Another young family in our church lived across the street from the house fire that left the family in need of items that had been moved from the home. They provided a couple of people for our crew as well.
It was a bit tricky backing the trailer through all of the landscaping in the back yard, but we got it in place and the piano fit (barely) through the sliding screen door on the lower level of the building it was leaving. We were soon loaded and on our way. The destination presented several challenges. We had to maneuver the trailer in a very narrow area. It was so narrow I had to fold in the mirrors of the truck and I am used to backing trailers using my mirrors, but we got it in place. Then there were the six steps up to the deck. There was no way to make that part of the move except by lifting that piano. It was a good thing we had a big crew. Soon the piano was in its new home and shortly afterward there were pictures on Facebook posted by the delighted new owner.
I commented that they don’t teach you about moving pianos in theological seminary. It is true. But moving pianos isn’t what we do best at all. What we do is build community. Without the church, there would be no connection between the mother of the retired minister and the 8-month-old little girl who will practice her first piano lessons on that instrument. Without the church the gift of music shared on Christmas Eve wouldn’t get connected to the gift of a piano to a young family. Without the church, the victims of the fire would never have made connections with panicked members of the sandwich generation struggling to sort through all of their parents’ possessions in a harried holiday week. What we do is build community and make connections.
By the way, we also move pianos.
But we also find ourselves moving pianos because we love people. That is what happened yesterday. Without telling the whole story, a little background is necessary. Our congregation is a gathering place for retired ministers. At times we have had as many as ten retired clergy in the congregation. Add that to the three of us who are on staff and another minister who is the chaplain at our hospital, and a very well-trained lay minister who has graduated from the Yankton College theology program and there are a lot of minister types hanging around. Nothing draws a crowd like a crowd and so the table in the fellowship hall with a bunch of ministers talking theology after most worship services is attractive to other retired or retiring ministers who happen to visit and the number continues to grow. It is really good for the active pastors to have this crowd around us. There is always a ready hand to help when we need assistance. There are special occasions when we serve communion by having the congregation come forward as opposed to our usual of serving in the pews. We can set up five or more stations staffed by ministers to quickly serve our congregation.
And we ministers tend to form households full of things that are hard to move. We love books and books are heavy. And many of us love music, so there is usually a piano thrown into the mix.
One of our retired ministers has had to move into a nursing home recently. He lost his wife to heard disease suddenly a couple of years ago and has been living independently in their townhouse, but the time came when complications of his diabetes and other health problems meant that he could not longer live alone even with daily assistance from health care workers. So his children assisted with the move and they put his house on the market so that his assets could be used for his care. They didn’t expect a quick sale in the downturned economy. But we are often surprised. Just before Christmas they received a cash offer for the house and the buyer needs to close the deal by the end of the year for tax purposes. So, they had only a week to empty the house. And there was a lot of stuff in that house.
The piano was a family heirloom. It had been the piano of the grandmother of the adult children who were responsible for cleaning out the house. They loved that old piano, but none of them had a place for it. They called the church offering the piano “free to a good home.” It is a quality console piano, the kind of instrument often used for teaching in schools. People at the church got on the phone and went to work to help the family struggling to deal with all of the things in the house. Working with the Red Cross, we were able to get furniture to a family who had lost everything in a house fire. There were even some toys for the children, who were excited to begin with at the prospect of having beds to sleep on. There were clothes to go to the thrift store, some tools to go to the Habitat for Humanity ReStore, and theological books to go to the Eagle Butte Learning Center. There were a couple of boxes to be put in storage for the church rummage sale.
And, yes, we found a home for the piano. A young family in our church has a mother who plays the flute and loves music. Her mother-in-law is a cellist and music teacher. The father of the family was raised in a musical family and always thought that his home would have a piano. Everyone was delighted with the match. Everything was falling into place. But the piano had to be moved before 10 a.m. on December 31. So after church we assembled a crew to move the piano. Everyone on the crew had a direct connection to the adventure. A couple of our lifters had been special friends with the retired minister and were happy to meet his daughters. The new owners of the piano recruited relatives to help. Another young family in our church lived across the street from the house fire that left the family in need of items that had been moved from the home. They provided a couple of people for our crew as well.
It was a bit tricky backing the trailer through all of the landscaping in the back yard, but we got it in place and the piano fit (barely) through the sliding screen door on the lower level of the building it was leaving. We were soon loaded and on our way. The destination presented several challenges. We had to maneuver the trailer in a very narrow area. It was so narrow I had to fold in the mirrors of the truck and I am used to backing trailers using my mirrors, but we got it in place. Then there were the six steps up to the deck. There was no way to make that part of the move except by lifting that piano. It was a good thing we had a big crew. Soon the piano was in its new home and shortly afterward there were pictures on Facebook posted by the delighted new owner.
I commented that they don’t teach you about moving pianos in theological seminary. It is true. But moving pianos isn’t what we do best at all. What we do is build community. Without the church, there would be no connection between the mother of the retired minister and the 8-month-old little girl who will practice her first piano lessons on that instrument. Without the church the gift of music shared on Christmas Eve wouldn’t get connected to the gift of a piano to a young family. Without the church, the victims of the fire would never have made connections with panicked members of the sandwich generation struggling to sort through all of their parents’ possessions in a harried holiday week. What we do is build community and make connections.
By the way, we also move pianos.