The "Retirement Home Solo" Story

It was an ordinary day. I'm getting ready to meet Mr. McConnell and Molly S. at Woodcrest Villa for a Sunday afternoon service at the retirement home. Molly is the assistant minister at St. James Episcopal Church in Lancaster and Frank McConnell is the organist and choirmaster. Mr. M. came to St. James in 1944 from NY where he was the assistant to renowned organist T. Terius Noble. Boy, could he play the organ!! And me, well I'm the soloist today for the service. My first time at a retirement home! My Dad usually does all the solo work for the choir at the retirement homes, but he can't go today so Mr. M. asked me to fill his shoes. Should be interesting. Leading the hymns is a piece of cake since Mr. M. plays really loud so the people in attendance can hear the music. There is also a featured solo and today I am singing the hymn Amazing Grace. I must admit that I never before sang it the whole way through, but today I will do that. I'm not sure why, since by the time we reach the solo in the service, quite a few of theresidents are dozing off. But hey, I really enjoyed it. I wasn't sure that Mr. M. would ever ask me again to do a solo after the fiasco I performed a little over a year ago. He had asked me to sing a solo in the Christmas Cantata. Not that tough a solo, but I'm more a follower than a leader. My voice is OK and I can sing loud if need be, but hitting the right note ..... well I rely on the guy next to me to do that and I just join in. We had practiced it for two months and I thought I was ready. Until the part in the cantata where I was supposed to enter and hit the right note and sing a few pages by myself. I sang, so I did, but not the right notes. Some of the other choir members were burning a whole in my music with their stares, but I just didn't know what notes to hit. I was sweating profusely by the end of the solo, as was almost everyone else who knew the notes I was supposed to be hitting. No high fives after that!! Mr. M. never said a word about the performance. And then last week he approached me with the request for another solo. I'm still not sure if he had asked everyone else first and I was the last choice, but I was ready to redeem myself. And I did. Hit all the notes right on. Only problem was that by the end of the hymn, most everyone was sleeping. Boy, they missed a really good solo!! It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy. PS - In the choir photo, my Dad is back row dead center and I'm far right in the back row with the dark glasses.