New Friends!
All through my life, I have been fascinated about the people I meet. The circumstances that put us together and the outcomes of these ‘chance’ meetings. When I began the Bessy project, I was even more intrigued about the paths I found myself on and the people that I met along the way. My wonderful friends really supported me in my venture, for which I am more grateful than they will ever know but support and friendship also came from unexpected and even unknown sources.
Right from the start, amidst the flurry of negative replies to letters regarding funding, came a cheque from the member of a Trust’s personal account. I was stunned as I had never met this extremely generous person but they had liked my ideas and although I didn’t quite fit the criteria for their Trust, they wanted to help out personally! This gave me the courage to keep moving forward and put my own savings into the project and at least get things moving.
Getting the project off the ground was an incredibly organic process. I would contact one person with a question and often they would show me that I needed to tweak the question and guide me to the next person I should speak to. As I zig-zagged along the way I learned so much and met some wonderful people. Some joined the team and others have supported from a distance. I now have learned to never have fear in asking for help and advice as somehow, you will always find the answer in some form or another!
My newest friendship really feels that it was ‘meant to be’! My long standing friend, Corrinna had been out walking in the hills and met another couple out doing the same. They got talking and as Corrinna is a wonderful cellist and a fantastic music teacher, the subject of music came up. ~ Although Corrinna and I don’t socialise on a regular basis, there is a continuous thread to our friendship as we were at college together, have taught and still teach in some of the same schools, went to see Dolly in concert together and many years ago she accompanied me on a crazy 36 hour venture to pick up my new double bass which had been made for me in Berlin! That kind of friendship is the real deal. ~ As the conversation progressed, Corrinna learned that Pam who was now retired had also been a music teacher and that her 6 year old grandson who was living in Spain was learning double bass!
Hello Dolly!
“What are the chances?”
Corrinna’s young daughter, who is also a cellist has been a fan of Bessy, thanks to the wonderful support of her mum, and so “Bessy” came up in the conversation!
These chance conversations often get forgotten about once the ‘new friends’ return home…but not this one! Corrinna messaged to tell me about the chance encounter and I waited (im)patiently by my inbox!
A message pinged through the following day (a mis-spelling of Bessy had nearly foiled the connection!). It was such a wonderful message, full of positivity and enthusiasm. I immediately replied and waited intently for the response. Nothing. I sent the message again fearing my reply was in the dreaded spam folder and crossed my fingers. There was nothing more I could do.
A few days later another enthusiastic email pinged in. My reply had indeed landed in the spam folder but it had been found and the lines of communication repaired and reopened!
The response from Pam to my first book “Part One - Europe” was overwhelming! After an incredibly difficult year for us all, it was the tonic I needed to know that Bessy was still able to do her job and I should keep going! This enthusiasm was echoed by Pam’s lovely daughter Ruth who teaches music and a plethora of languages in Spain and even more so, by AM (Andreu Marti), Ruth’s elder son, aged 6 who is learning double bass. Their positive energy and heartfelt enthusiasm is so contagious and uplifting!
A few days later, I was privileged to be invited to AM’s end of term concert on Zoom where we all met for the first time. As it was only AM’s family & me on the Zoom, a glitch in the wifi at the school’s end allowed for us to get to know each other a little! Fortunately the wifi was restored and we got to hear the wonderful AM in full performance mode.
Not just content with playing his concert, when he got home and found out I had been in the audience, he immediately recorded a couple of Bessy tunes to show me what he had learned! Check out his impromptu performance here! He has a great teacher and I was delighted she joined us at our first Bessy at our Place Zoom even though she doesn’t speak much English. Hopefully we can collaborate further in the future.
Speaking of collaborations, I mentioned that Ruth, Pam’s daughter, taught languages as well as music. This is another unexpected coincidence…watch this space! 😉
We now all have regular WhatsApp chats and our friendship grows. With Covid restrictions lifted somewhat, I was able to finally meet Pam & her lovely husband Keith in person. My mum and I were invited to lunch at their beautiful house where we dined al fresco, chatted like we had been friends all our lives and made sure Alfie the dog got enough attention and not too much sun!
As we creep back to our next stage of ‘normality’, plans are being made for a mass meeting in person! Three families living in two countries 1200 miles apart, all united through a chance encounter and the power of music!
