Thursday, February 23, 2017

Kendal's Piano Lady

When dinnertime arrives at Kendal and residents and guests begin arriving in small groups for their evening meals, music from the grand piano in the lobby may be floating through the air. When their dinners are over and they begin to drift out from the dining rooms toward their residences, piano music may be accompanying their departures. Frequently the happy diners pause in the lobby – perhaps standing quietly, perhaps seated in couches and chairs, sometimes approaching the piano and even singing along with the tunes. This happy Kendal custom owes its existence to one gifted and generous resident, Teddy Westlake, Kendal's Piano Lady.

Teddy is a longtime resident of Granville. In 2005 she and her husband Jim, a World War II veteran, were among the founding residents of Kendal at Granville. For many years Teddy taught piano to generations of children, and she later became founder and director of Vintage Voices, Granville's community choir for seniors. After moving to Kendal and seeing the need for creating a singing opportunity for Kendal residents, she founded the Kendaliers, a small group that performs several times a year for the residents. She is a woman for whom music is the breath of life, and she understands that music is a gift to be shared.

Her dinnertime concerts are never bombastic and feature a variety of music. Sometimes she performs light piano classics. But she is likelier to be heard playing show tunes, or popular songs, or religious melodies. The pieces are usually the old songs – music associated with the early twentieth century, with the two world wars, with the 1930s and 1950s. They are the tunes that Kendal residents have known for decades, often from their childhoods. With their focus on the simple themes of love and separation, joy and grief, children and memories, faith and redemption, they constitute the collective background score that has accompanied the lives of most of Kendal's residents.

Teddy seeks no praise for her contribution to life at Kendal. She knows she gives enjoyment, but pretty clearly she is playing, almost dreamily, for her own satisfaction too. I have no idea whether she will even see this blog entry. But it is meant as my tribute to the Kendal's Piano Lady and my note of appreciation to her for acting on her lifetime project of sharing her love of music.

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