I dreamed of having an ebony baby grand piano since I started playing the piano when I was seven. I’ve had other pianos through the years, and they were always really nice and did what I needed them to do, but that baby grand was always on my wish list. Someday. As we had kids and life stuff to take care of, that piano kept getting moved farther down the list. And that’s okay.
When it was getting close to our 20th anniversary, John said we should start looking for my piano—he knew that was one of my heart’s desires. Of course, I really liked that idea, so I started looking. We had a certain budget we needed to stay within, so it was kind of tough to find something that would match our budget. One night, when John was on a plane home from a business trip, I found what I thought was THE piano in the classifieds. I called to see if we could go look at it, and as soon as John walked in the door, we left to go see the piano.
It was love at first sight. The couple had owned the piano for over 40 years, their kids had all learned to play on this piano, and it was absolutely beautiful! They had taken immaculate care of it, and I could tell that the gentleman was really torn about selling it. They were only in Arizona 6 months of the year, and he hated that it sat for all those months without being played. I’d not thought to take any music with me, so he found some piano books for me. I sat down and played and was totally in love again. The sound was beyond amazing!!! We asked him about the story of the piano, and it was fascinating. They’d bought the piano from a lady who’d lived in NYC and who had owned it for 40 years. It’s a 1916 Chickering, and back in the day, Chickerings were THE piano to own. This one is actually a parlor grand, and it was originally a player piano.
At some point in time, this couple took it to get it refinished (it was ebony at the time), and the refinisher called them and told them that he’d removed the finish and that he refused to finish it in ebony. When they asked him why, he told them it was the most beautiful mahogany, and that he wouldn’t ruin it by refinishing it in ebony. So they followed his advice, and he made the beautiful mahogany wood shine through.
We quickly agreed on a price, and when we arrived at their home a few days later with the piano movers, the gentleman asked if I’d like a box of piano books he’d saved over the years, including the books his kids had used for piano lessons. Of course, I said yes! I loved going through those books—it was like looking at a part of their family’s history. And he had some great classical books, which I also love.
As we left with the piano, he got a bit teary. It was heartbreaking! But he did tell me he was really happy I was getting his piano, and I assured him I’d take the very best care of it and that it would become a family treasure.
Fast forward 5 years to our move to Georgia. When our moving truck finally arrived, the driver didn’t help with the actual moving-in-of-stuff much because he said he’d recently hurt his arm (clue #1). The moving guys were great. They were very willing to put things where we wanted them and had a pretty good attitude. They rolled my piano in first and set it in it’s room. Then they moved everything else in. From time to time the driver and I would joke about my “baby” (piano) and how anyone who hurt it would probably receive some bodily injury.
After everything was moved in, they started to unpack my piano. We were all in the kitchen starting to unpack kitchen stuff when the driver came to me and said (cue music: “dun dun dun dun”), “You’re going to need to file a damage claim on your piano.” What? At first I thought he was kidding because we’d been joking about my “baby” throughout the day. I actually asked him if he was joking. He said, “No.” Then my heart really fell. Clear through to the basement. It got really quiet in our home. I went to look at it and this is what I saw (these pictures are not for the musically weak of stomach):
And these pictures really don’t do the damage justice and don’t show the damage to the insides. Some bolts were actually sheared right off.
I asked the driver what had happened, and he told me that the mover guys who were moving our stuff from the warehouse onto his truck in Phoenix had dropped it. Thankfully, Phoenix is 3 hours behind us, so I immediately called the moving company, told them who I was and was quickly transferred to the General Manager (not a good sign). Before I could even tell him why I was calling, he said, “Mrs. Kelley, your driver dropped your piano.” I told him my driver had just told me, to my face, that the mover guys had dropped it. He said, “No, they came to me and told me the driver was trying to move it by himself, dropped it, and hurt his arm.” (Remember the clue from above?). The General Manager assured me they had already been in contact with a piano repair guy here in Atlanta and that he would be calling me the next day. He also assured me they would make things right.
I hung up the phone and was Aaaannnngggggrrrryyyyy. I really don’t get too angry very often, but this was definitely one of those super angry times. I went to the driver and told him I had just talked to the office in Phoenix, and they had told me what really happened. That driver had lied right to my face! That made me angrier than anything. I understand that things can happen, and I would’ve been upset if he’d told me the truth, but not as upset as I was. I started to cry and went outside and started pacing up and down the driveway. Kam came out to check on me and paced with me for a bit. I got myself back together and went back into the house. The driver was getting ready to leave, because I think he knew his goose was pretty well cooked, until I reminded him that, per our contract, he was to put all our beds together before he left. He got really nice and put our beds together in record time. He apologized, and I told him what bothered me the most was that he lied to me. Then he left.
All the kids were so sympathetic and loving after he left. They chipped in and did above and beyond that night to get things ready so we could go to bed and kept telling me things would be okay. They were awesome! Kam took this almost as hard as I did because she loves to play the piano too, and we love to hear her play.
The piano repair guy came a couple of days later and took my piano. It took 6 long weeks to make all the repairs, and it came back in beautiful condition and still with its beautiful sound, which was something I was really worried about. I was so thankful for an awesome repair guy and an equally awesome tuner who spent many hours putting it back together and getting it just right. You can only see the damage if you know it’s there, and even then, it’s hard to see it.
I’ve had my dream piano for a little over 10 years now, and it still brings me and our family so much happiness. I love playing it, although I definitely don’t take the opportunity to play as often as I’d like to. That’s something I need to do better at since playing always brings me peace and is a huge stress reliever.
New goal: Learn one of those classical pieces I’ve been wanting to master. ?
Happy 100th birthday, piano! May we have many, many, many more birthdays together!
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