LJ Idol Season 8: Week 36(C); Patchwork
My brother, William, held up the keyboard, which was nothing more than melted plastic.
"I fixed it once,” He referenced how he took my old broken keyboard and reattached the keys so it could play again, “Maybe I can do it again?”
So much hope in his eyes, I wanted to say yes... But broken keys and melted plastic were two entirely different things. I shook my head, "I promise we will try to get you another one.”
I wasn’t sure how we would, but I knew that we needed to. My brother loved playing music. I’d never seen a young boy pick up music so easily, and he was all self-taught too.
And now, his prized possession destroyed and we were too broke to be able to buy a new one, not with losing our home and all.
He took one last look at it before tossing it in the giant trash pile with a sigh. He walked away, scared that his life might never come back together again.
My niece ran up to me, bridesmaid dress from my wedding in hand and tears falling from her eyes, "A dry cleaner can clean this, right?”
Her room hadn’t been hit by the fire, but smoke and water had damaged most of her things. Her clothes were all ruined, everything she owned drenched. And the dress that was supposed to be her prom dress that year...destroyed.
Again, I made a promise, "We will get you a dress, I promise. This one can’t be cleaned... It’s ruined.”
She nodded and just like my brother, put the dress in the pile of trash, but instead of tossing it down, she laid it gently and had a hard time walking away.
They were just kids and they’d lost everything within a matter of minutes. Their home, their stuff, and most of all, the memories that went along with all of it.
Gone.
**********
I placed an ad on Craigslist, talking about the fire and asking for donated items. Clothes, housing items, gift cards... And toward the end, I mentioned a keyboard and talked about my brother, thinking maybe something would work out.
A woman from a town two hours away called me that evening.
She had clothing and a few household items she had collected from her neighbors. She said she also had something else. A few years ago, she’d brought her a son a brand new keyboard because he liked to play music. He’d never opened it and he’d moved on to college, leaving it behind.
She wanted to know if my brother would use it?
YES! I nearly yelled into the phone. Only a day after the disaster and things were already starting to look up!
It was even better than the one he had before. Brand new and a more expensive brand; it even came with a stand which would come in handy later on.
Years later, we would be in a public museum with a piano in the center of the room. My brother, now 16, would walk up as people sneered at the kid with shorts down to his knees.
But then he sat down and started playing Fur Elise flawlessly and perfect, not missing a beat. Soon, a crowd gathered around to watch. My brother was oblivious to everyone around him, focusing on the music as he finished the final note. He stood up and rejoined his friends, the crowd dispersing but whispering amongst themselves about how good he was.
For a moment, my brother was the absolute center of attention. It’s a moment in time I don’t think either of us will ever forget.
Thanks to the kindness of a stranger, he was able to get a piece of his childhood back.
(The above video is of my brother playing his keyboard over at a friend's house. He's just goofing off really, not even playing seriously, and you can still see how good he is for someone who's completely self taught. You can hear my nephew in the background asking about going to a motel, it's because they had no water or electric at that time.)
**********
Samantha had all but given up on going to prom, not wanting to put a burden on her mother after the fire. She’s a very sensitive and empathetic person, so she swore she had no desire to go.
But then her special education teacher asked her if she could take her dress shopping. Mrs. Monroe would pay for the dress herself, and she didn’t want to stay local. She wanted to take Samantha into the city, to a fancier dress store.
My mom and sister had put money aside to buy the shoes and accessories, but when Samantha came home that evening, she had everything. The shoes, the earrings, the coverup... $300 worth of stuff. She had tried to talk the teacher out of buying all of it, saying she didn’t need it... That just the dress would be fine...
But Mrs. Monroe wouldn’t have any of that.
Samantha was absolutely stunning at her prom, and she has special memories from that day that she wouldn’t have had without the help of a special teacher who went above and beyond the call of duty.
(The above photo is of Samantha in a princess style pink dress with jewels affixed to the top. She's standing with her mom and grandma before the prom. )
**********
Flat screen TVs? Cell Phones? Cable? People like to joke about how the poor all live better than they do, but growing up I didn’t dream about gaming systems or cell phones... No, I dreamt about having a house with heat. Or not going without water when our pipes burst. I wanted a home without holes in the floor or ceiling. Getting in and out the back door meant balancing on boards since the floor gave in from water damage. I wanted sturdy floors and a roof that didn’t cave in, not a mansion or anything fancy.
I just wanted a home for my family. What we had was all my mom and step-dad could afford and it was home. Many would be terrified of walking through it, but to us, it was all we had.
Once it was gone, my family had nowhere to go.
My sister lived on the same property in a garage converted into a one-bedroom house. Samantha had lived with my mom simply because they had no room for her and her two younger siblings there. When they all moved in together? All seven of my family members made it virtually impossible to move without stepping on someone. My mom, step-dad, William and Samantha shared the bedroom while my sister and her other two kids slept on a fold-out couch in the living room.
At one point, there looked to be no other options for years to come. Until the woman from earlier, the one who gave William his keyboard, called me to brainstorm ideas.
"I don’t like how they live so cramped like that!”
I tried telling her they had no other choice. My sister is mentally disabled and my mom must be nearby to help her with daily life. It’s unlikely they could afford another house elsewhere, there really appeared to be no hope.
The woman wouldn’t hear anything of it though and decided she would buy them a temporary solution, an RV. She wanted to buy a larger trailer, but it wouldn’t fit on the property. So she found a two bedroom RV and paid $4,000 for it.
She told us we never had to pay her back, it was a gift. Of course, we found a way to pay her back, that was just asking too much from a stranger.
The kindness of that woman has given my family a home once more. Yes, it’s small. My brother’s bedroom is so tiny, only one person can stand in there at a time and his bed is built into the wall. But he has a door and he has a roof over his head.
For my mother who lost everything in the fire, this is all she has. She’s building her life around it. Due to space, she can’t display her pictures on the walls like before. I bought her a digital photo frame for Christmas and loaded it up with all of our family photos. She’s always been one to cherish photos and memories above all else. It’s little things like that which have helped turned a little RV into something more.
Thanks to the kindness of strangers and people from the community, they’ve started piecing their lives back together again.
Four years later and they still live there. It’s home.
"I fixed it once,” He referenced how he took my old broken keyboard and reattached the keys so it could play again, “Maybe I can do it again?”
So much hope in his eyes, I wanted to say yes... But broken keys and melted plastic were two entirely different things. I shook my head, "I promise we will try to get you another one.”
I wasn’t sure how we would, but I knew that we needed to. My brother loved playing music. I’d never seen a young boy pick up music so easily, and he was all self-taught too.
And now, his prized possession destroyed and we were too broke to be able to buy a new one, not with losing our home and all.
He took one last look at it before tossing it in the giant trash pile with a sigh. He walked away, scared that his life might never come back together again.
My niece ran up to me, bridesmaid dress from my wedding in hand and tears falling from her eyes, "A dry cleaner can clean this, right?”
Her room hadn’t been hit by the fire, but smoke and water had damaged most of her things. Her clothes were all ruined, everything she owned drenched. And the dress that was supposed to be her prom dress that year...destroyed.
Again, I made a promise, "We will get you a dress, I promise. This one can’t be cleaned... It’s ruined.”
She nodded and just like my brother, put the dress in the pile of trash, but instead of tossing it down, she laid it gently and had a hard time walking away.
They were just kids and they’d lost everything within a matter of minutes. Their home, their stuff, and most of all, the memories that went along with all of it.
Gone.
**********
I placed an ad on Craigslist, talking about the fire and asking for donated items. Clothes, housing items, gift cards... And toward the end, I mentioned a keyboard and talked about my brother, thinking maybe something would work out.
A woman from a town two hours away called me that evening.
She had clothing and a few household items she had collected from her neighbors. She said she also had something else. A few years ago, she’d brought her a son a brand new keyboard because he liked to play music. He’d never opened it and he’d moved on to college, leaving it behind.
She wanted to know if my brother would use it?
YES! I nearly yelled into the phone. Only a day after the disaster and things were already starting to look up!
It was even better than the one he had before. Brand new and a more expensive brand; it even came with a stand which would come in handy later on.
Years later, we would be in a public museum with a piano in the center of the room. My brother, now 16, would walk up as people sneered at the kid with shorts down to his knees.
But then he sat down and started playing Fur Elise flawlessly and perfect, not missing a beat. Soon, a crowd gathered around to watch. My brother was oblivious to everyone around him, focusing on the music as he finished the final note. He stood up and rejoined his friends, the crowd dispersing but whispering amongst themselves about how good he was.
For a moment, my brother was the absolute center of attention. It’s a moment in time I don’t think either of us will ever forget.
Thanks to the kindness of a stranger, he was able to get a piece of his childhood back.
Click to view(The above video is of my brother playing his keyboard over at a friend's house. He's just goofing off really, not even playing seriously, and you can still see how good he is for someone who's completely self taught. You can hear my nephew in the background asking about going to a motel, it's because they had no water or electric at that time.)
**********
Samantha had all but given up on going to prom, not wanting to put a burden on her mother after the fire. She’s a very sensitive and empathetic person, so she swore she had no desire to go.
But then her special education teacher asked her if she could take her dress shopping. Mrs. Monroe would pay for the dress herself, and she didn’t want to stay local. She wanted to take Samantha into the city, to a fancier dress store.
My mom and sister had put money aside to buy the shoes and accessories, but when Samantha came home that evening, she had everything. The shoes, the earrings, the coverup... $300 worth of stuff. She had tried to talk the teacher out of buying all of it, saying she didn’t need it... That just the dress would be fine...
But Mrs. Monroe wouldn’t have any of that.
Samantha was absolutely stunning at her prom, and she has special memories from that day that she wouldn’t have had without the help of a special teacher who went above and beyond the call of duty.
(The above photo is of Samantha in a princess style pink dress with jewels affixed to the top. She's standing with her mom and grandma before the prom. )
**********
Flat screen TVs? Cell Phones? Cable? People like to joke about how the poor all live better than they do, but growing up I didn’t dream about gaming systems or cell phones... No, I dreamt about having a house with heat. Or not going without water when our pipes burst. I wanted a home without holes in the floor or ceiling. Getting in and out the back door meant balancing on boards since the floor gave in from water damage. I wanted sturdy floors and a roof that didn’t cave in, not a mansion or anything fancy.
I just wanted a home for my family. What we had was all my mom and step-dad could afford and it was home. Many would be terrified of walking through it, but to us, it was all we had.
Once it was gone, my family had nowhere to go.
My sister lived on the same property in a garage converted into a one-bedroom house. Samantha had lived with my mom simply because they had no room for her and her two younger siblings there. When they all moved in together? All seven of my family members made it virtually impossible to move without stepping on someone. My mom, step-dad, William and Samantha shared the bedroom while my sister and her other two kids slept on a fold-out couch in the living room.
At one point, there looked to be no other options for years to come. Until the woman from earlier, the one who gave William his keyboard, called me to brainstorm ideas.
"I don’t like how they live so cramped like that!”
I tried telling her they had no other choice. My sister is mentally disabled and my mom must be nearby to help her with daily life. It’s unlikely they could afford another house elsewhere, there really appeared to be no hope.
The woman wouldn’t hear anything of it though and decided she would buy them a temporary solution, an RV. She wanted to buy a larger trailer, but it wouldn’t fit on the property. So she found a two bedroom RV and paid $4,000 for it.
She told us we never had to pay her back, it was a gift. Of course, we found a way to pay her back, that was just asking too much from a stranger.
The kindness of that woman has given my family a home once more. Yes, it’s small. My brother’s bedroom is so tiny, only one person can stand in there at a time and his bed is built into the wall. But he has a door and he has a roof over his head.
For my mother who lost everything in the fire, this is all she has. She’s building her life around it. Due to space, she can’t display her pictures on the walls like before. I bought her a digital photo frame for Christmas and loaded it up with all of our family photos. She’s always been one to cherish photos and memories above all else. It’s little things like that which have helped turned a little RV into something more.
Thanks to the kindness of strangers and people from the community, they’ve started piecing their lives back together again.
Four years later and they still live there. It’s home.