In Memoriam - Rosie Williams

A very sad day.

Rosie Williams was one of the kindest, sweetest, and quirkiest people I have ever known. I always looked forward to my piano lessons with her while I was in college and I never would have survived the harrowing piano juries and Tuesday afternoon recital performance had it not been for her encouragement and inspiration.

I vividly remember one particular lesson with her. We were working on a problematic section of a piece I was studying. It wasn’t that it was technically too difficult for me; I could play the pitches well enough. But it just came out sounding mechanical without any emotion behind it.

After considering the music and the situation for a minute, Rosie said to me, “Have you seen Schindler’s List?” I didn’t know where she was going with this line of thought, but I replied, “Yes.” She continued,” Do you remember the scene with the little girl in the red coat?” How could I not? Then Rosie asked me what I remembered and, specifically, how it made me feel. After sitting quietly and considering it for a few minutes, Rosie softly said “Make this section feel like that.”

I played through the challenging section again, only this time, it was effortless, expressive, and perfect. When I got to the end, I realized I was crying. And so was Rosie.

God Bless you, Rosie.

Survey Says...

I grew up in a house where the VCR was set to record Jeopardy! every night, so my parents could watch it together after my mom finished teaching piano. That was, and still is, life in the Fischer household.

Game shows. I hate them, my mom loves them. After my dad goes to bed in the evenings, my mom copes with insomnia by flipping on GSN (Game Show Network) and watching old episodes of Family Feud, Password and Match Game (her favorite).

Every so often, I get a message from my mom in which she tells me about something that happened on one of the game shows the night before. As much as I hate the shows, I love reading my mom's messages about them. Today, I got one of those messages:

Subject: Jeez

Tonight on the new Family Feud, one of the championship questions (asked of 100 adults) was 'Name a word that most dogs know.'

The lady said "woof".

The scary thing is ... 7 people in the survey said that, too.

(Almost a month without any posts and this is what I have to share? Well, what do you expect when a child is raised with daily exposure to Alex Trebek and is taught to phrase everything in the form of a question?)