About eighteen years ago I bought a baby grand piano from a woman in Langley, British Columbia. A Heintzman. Ten years later I called the woman, Mary Dumbleton, to tell her how much my daughter and I were enjoying the piano. We both played it every day. We’d nicknamed it “Mary” in her honour.
Mary told me a little bit about the history of the piano and how it had come to be in her family. She thanked me for calling, and suggested that maybe we could get together someday.
In May of this year I read in the Vancouver Sun that Mary Dumbleton of Langley, B.C., had passed away, “loved and deeply mourned.”
I felt saddened by this, and recalled something she’d told me in our phone conversation, so I decided to send a condolence card to her family via her home address. The card explained who I was, and that I was sorry to read that their mom had passed away. It also said that Mary had told me her family had always been a little resentful that she’d sold the piano, and if they wanted to replace my piano I’d be happy to return the little Heintzman to the Dumbleton family.
I sent this card off and waited for the family’s reply.
About a week later I came home and found a note on the counter, written in my husband’s hand.
The note said:
Mary Dumbleton called.
I was stunned. The only thing I could think of when I read those words was “How is this possible? Where could she be calling from?”
I called my husband at work and asked him.
“Mary Dumbleton called? What did she say?”
“She said she liked the card,” he told me. He didn’t know what I’d done.
“She said she liked the card?” I asked.
“Yeah, we had a nice chat.”
I waited a week before I got up the nerve to call her and tell her how happy I was that she was still alive. We both had a good laugh about it. She said that it was a lovely sentiment but that she’d be happy if the piano stayed where it was. She thanked me for calling. She said maybe we could get together someday. She said maybe she could visit me in Horseshoe Bay and see her namesake.
I look forward to that day. And send condolences to the family of the other Mary Dumbleton of Langley, B.C.
Horseshoe Bay, British Columbia