BILL: IN HONOR OF

My friend Bill is my hero because he went above and beyond the call of duty to help me through very difficult challenges. We met when I attended The Piano Hospital And Training Center in Vancouver Washington. November 1979 I flew from Md to WA not knowing anyone or anything about the area. I was the first female student to successfully enter this training program.

Unfortunately, I do not have any pictures or videos but I do have the memories. We got to know each other after several months passed. Our trust and friendship made the biggest difference for me because I faced a few challenges which required out-of-the-box kind of thinking and remedies.

I didn’t have enough hand strength to hold pliers while bending music/piano wire. Patently Bill allowed me to experiment with different tools and techniques. I finally discovered how to use vice grips to hold the wire without breaking it from the pressure and was able to complete the task. Another incident that almost caused me to quit and go home was when Bill was off the day I was learning a particular piano tuning technique. The other instructor decided I had done a good job and told me to complete the process. The next day when Bill returned he was concerned because I had been moved forward too fast without enough time to practice the necessary crucial steps for beginning tuning a temperament which is the beginning of tuning a piano. Sure enough, everything went wrong, and collapsed retarding my progress severely. After struggling for days I was almost ready to quit. Bill worked with me on tuning and I tried to do this correctly, I tried again the traditional way the school taught this technique but failed. Finally, I asked Bill to tune a temperament. This turning wasn’t the same way it is taught by the school. After he finished, I perked up, It made sense to me and I believe he could tell by my reactions that I could successfully learn his method of tuning. He asked me to not tell anyone and I agreed. After two years of intensive study, I graduated and got a job in MD.

He is my hero because he believed in my abilities, took a chance on trusting me to quietly learn a different approach to tuning the temperament a beginning phase for tuning the piano, and was a friend for many years until he passed on in 1995.

415 words

2316 characters, 415 words. Readability level: 11-12th grade student.