1. Mom slept in until about 7:45. She ate her breakfast about forty minutes later and then slept in her chair for the rest of the morning. Once she woke up and some mental fog lifted, her mind was sharp and she had no problems getting ready for the day's major event and she continued to be right on top of things on into the late afternoon and evening.
2. Mom got dressed up in one of her Sunday best outfits and consented to my idea that I push her in her wheelchair across the street and into the church parking lot and building without her having to do the much more difficult task of climbing into and out of her car. This worked great. Inside, I situated Mom right where she wanted to be toward the back of the church behind the pews. We arrived about twenty-five minutes before the Easter Cantata started. Before and after the concert, many of Mom's friends stopped by to tell her how good she looked and to chat about any number of things.
3. The many people from up and down the Silver Valley who sang in the Easter Cantata performed beautifully and Christy, Mom, and I were very proud of sister/daughter Carol's performance as a soloist. Listening to the Easter Cantata (directed by fellow 1972-74 North Idaho College choir member and lifelong friend, Joy Persoon) transported me back to a Sunday at least fifty years ago when a combined choir of Silver Valley churches and a small instrumental ensemble performed Handel's Messiah in the same church. Our Boy Scout troop, Troop 300, directed parking for the event and then we got to come in and listen to the performance. To this day, whenever I hear the Messiah or when I have sung it at both community sing-a-longs and as a choir member at North Idaho College, I remember that day when I first heard it performed and what stands out most clearly is the beauty of hearing a harpsichord for the first time -- that day, when I was about 12 years old, the harpsichord mesmerized me -- and never stopped.
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