Allyson Byrd
My dear friend and neighbor. 4 or 5 years ago Bubba gave me a homemade “piano lessons” voucher for Valentine’s Day. I happened to see Mrs. Lady’s advertisement on The Nextdoor app and took a chance and called her up. She happened to live directly across from us on the next street over. I started taking lessons and she eventually gave Abby lessons in Kindergarten. I will never forget the joy of my greatest accomplishment to play a small piece with her sitting by my side. She gave me the greatest gift with music and something I love so much. She taught in her home from her beautiful grand piano that sat in a sun parlor with plants and big windows and a lifetime of artifacts on the shelves that must have been her favorite things. I adored her from the moment I met her. She came to me in a time when my grandmother was sick and eventually passed away. Mrs. Lady was my grandmother’s age and a true lady like her of that same era. She was always kind, tidy and put together. Her voice was gentle and never cross. She told me how her mother drove her an hour away for lessons when she was 5 and was giving Piano lessons by age 10. Now I can’t remember the story accurately, she may have been self taught. That part I don’t remember. Her life and accolades were remarkable. The next Spring her husband was very ill and that next year we visited as friends instead of lessons. Abby and I would visit her Fish pond in her backyard and she would give me plants. We shared a love of bird watching and the big trees in our neighborhood. I have a small garden in my backyard full of the plants she gave me. I will miss our friendship dearly.