The things we treasure

The parents who raised me have both been gone for over 20 years. Given that my lifestyle included numerous moves across the country and back again a couple of times, choosing mementos to keep was challenging. The items would need to be reasonably small and moveable and yet representative of their lives.

My father was a piano tuner so I chose to keep his tuning hammer as a tangible reminder of his life. Touching it brings me great comfort and joy as it conjures up wonderful memories of the man he was.

My mother was a concert pianist in her youth and a music teacher throughout her life. I chose to keep her metronome as the tangible reminder of her life. She bought it when she was a young piano student at the Royal Academy of Music in London, GB back in the 1930s. It survived WWII and the treacherous trip home to Canada by ship with my mother. She used it in her daily practice and to help her students learn to maintain their rhythm while playing. As I grew up, that metronome kept the pace of my practising various instruments and, essentially, the pace of my life.

Those two items managed to survive many moves but two weeks ago tragedy struck. My husband was vacuuming and, as he turned around, the hose of the vacuum caught the tip of the metronome and sent it flying onto the floor where it shattered into many small and fragile pieces. He was devastated and I was heart broken. But, it was an accident so what can one say?

After checking out numerous possible sources for repair, I settled on #BrentRourke from Bloomfield, a few kilometres from home. He’s a wonderful cabinet maker and craftsman, not to mention a lovely human being. I thought if anyone could undertake such a repair it would be him. The actual mechanism of the metronome had survived in tact so it was the case that needed to be re-assembled.

I took the shattered remnants to Brent and after he had a look he agreed to undertake the repair. A scant week later he called to say it was ready. Needless to say, I was thrilled!

The repaired metronome is now home and sitting in a somewhat safer location. I am most grateful to Brent as it was the sentimental value of the item that meant so much to me. Should you ever need any cabinet or furniture work done, by all means check out Brent’s shop on the old Bloomfield Road at #569 Route 121 near Hampton, NB. It’s worth the drive and his work is impeccable. Check it out on his website at www.brentrourke.com Thanks Brent!

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