The Unassuming Pianist

Mom offered her skilled art as a lifelong volunteer

I set up a home tribute (ofrenda) to my mom on top of this old baby grand I rescued from a neighbor a few years ago.

Janet Sheffield Hay, who passed on December 15th, was an unpaid/volunteer church pianist. For over 50 years she played for congregational singing (3 church services a week), choirs and seasonal cantatas, ensemble accompaniment, offertories, and singalongs. She was ever faithful and always ready. 

The upright piano in the homes of my childhood was well used. She practiced on it routinely, though not obsessively. At mom’s insistence, my sister and I took piano lessons and practiced on it (I was permitted to drop piano lessons and take up trumpet lessons in 5th grade). Singing gathered ‘round the piano with family and friends was a common happening (with three of my children in the photo).

Mom typically sight read music flawlessly and accommodated some pretty perfectionistic and demanding musicians (pathetic divas) without protest.

I think the fact that she played well and so frequently without identifying herself as a pianist is remarkable. If you didn’t know she was an active pianist, you’d not find out from her.

A few weeks before she died, someone donated a beautiful grand piano to the assisted living facility where she lived. I helped her walk to it and she played it for a short while (photo). I looked forward to more times with her playing that piano, but that one time was it.

I’m grateful for the gift of the love of music and the insistence on practice and learning to play musical instruments that she instilled in me. 

I just want the world to know what she would never tell: Janet Sheffield Hay was an artist at the piano and a faithful church pianist throughout her life.