text: Story offers holiday cheer
  As a modern-day Christmas inspiration, the following is a story from my career in counseling.
  A lady loved playing the piano for senior center singalongs. Then one day she was mugged. Her bag and ID were stolen. A day later, she suffered a stroke and was hospitalized.
  The woman felt devastated. Her piano fingers were compromised. Even weeks of physical therapy could not restore her skills. Her self-image quickly sank. Her earlier niche in life had faded: she was now in the fog of depression. As her social worker, I had no swift solution.
  Just by chance, I passed a nearby nursery school and dropped in. There I learned that they had a dormant piano that badly needed tuning. That day we conspired to lure this lady to the nursery school on the pretext of doing a piano repair.
  As part of the tune-up, she tried out several scores such as "Mary Had a Little Lamb," while the kids, hidden in an adjacent room, perked up their ears. Suddenly, led by their teacher, they crowded around and began clapping and singing.
  From that day on, our lady friend played regularly for the kids who were grateful for any music at all and her confidence gradually returned.