Kay Wheeler, Raymond: The man who gave me my life in music pressherald.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from pressherald.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Kay Wheeler, Raymond: A learning moment, courtesy of a feathered family member
Share
Gardens … what a great subject! Almost all of us have, at one time or another, had a garden. We all have specific memories of each garden during our lifetime. My earliest garden memory was of my mother killing a rattlesnake in her garden. I know, I know, gruesome. When you grow up on the prairie in Colorado, rattlesnakes are not your garden friends.
Kay Wheeler’s entire family bonded with a baby bird her husband rescued.
Rosa Jay/Shutterstock.com
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Kay Wheeler, who is retired and living in Raymond, says, “Gardening in Maine is a whole new concept for me after living in Charleston, South Carolina, for 25 years before moving here.”
Maine Voices: A different way to say ‘I love you’
As Tony Bennett has shown us, Alzheimer’s disease doesn’t dim the gift of or the joy in music.
By Kay WheelerSpecial to the Telegram
Share
My career was music, playing and teaching violin. I taught at Ashley Hall School for girls (Barbara Bush went there) and the Charleston Academy of Music. I retired to Maine two years ago and now have time to write my memories.
Diagnosed with Alzheimer’s in 2016, Tony Bennett still performs, in public before COVID and now at home, two 90-minute sets a week with his longtime pianist at the suggestion of his neurologist “to keep him on his toes,” his wife and son say. A retired music teacher recalls another musician whose talents were not affected by dementia.
Kay Wheeler, Raymond: Tuneful encouragement helps soften life’s rough edges
Share
Many people believe that we don’t have memories at age 2 and 3. But we do. In many cases, just fragments, but, for example, Yo-Yo Ma could play the violin at age 3 and switched to cello at 4. I had a violin student once who could play Bach at 3.
Two songs that Kay Wheeler learned when she was little – “Powder Your Face With Sunshine” and “Look for the Silver Lining” – have been good to keep in mind in tough situations, she says.
Photo courtesy of Kay Wheeler
ABOUT THE AUTHOR