Page 60 - MLD Book

This year would be governed by a number of things that did not occur directly at Calvary but directly impacted my functioning, both there and elsewhere. Two falls by Melvin and the end of Bach Society determined my actions, and I will always be grateful for the family and friends that got me through 2011 and even more so in 2012. A challenging stretch for sure, permeated by Erdman and company ever more questioning how much I was doing, but never offering any solution. The word THANKS never entered their vocabulary. Anita was a brick during this period, taking over a lot of the food purchasing and bagging so that my beloved food pantry didn’t miss a beat, Her reward a couple more years later was to be fired because she spent too much time doing it! The first fall came early in the spring (I think) on a Sunday morning when our beloved Lab Maggie got in Melvin’s way in the hall at home and he fell over her, breaking his shoulder. I was at church but can’t remember why Melvin was not. He called
Maria and she took over, getting him to the dreaded Baptist East and subsequently back home. Luckily it wasn’t his conducting shoulder and I don’t recall his missing any LBS rehearsals for that one. We were rehearsing at that point the final LBS concert in May that would mark the end of 47 years of our way of doing Bach in Louisville! That concert was purposely chosen to be a performance of the Bach b minor mass. One of our most wonderful memories of performing that work had come in the very early years of LBS concerts, this one at Christ Church Cathedral. It was the first performance of the b minor in Louisville in years, if ever, and the church was not only packed, but they opened the windows and hundreds more listened in the garden. So it was fitting that our final concert be that same marvelous work. And as much as we hated for our tenure of the LBS to end, and especially for it not to continue, Father Time had really decreed that it was time for Melvin to end his pursuit of Bach choral performance on a glorious note (s).
The ensuing summer was spent
with us both continuing at Calvary,
me fuller than time and Melvin
still conducting the choir, although
it became harder for him with his
reluctant knees to climb those
stairs to the Loft. But Calvary
choir never quit in the summer
while we were in charge, so there
was lots to do, and it was a good
way to keep attendance in the
congregation up as well, because
there were a number of people
who wanted to hear good choral
music and we were the only ones
doing it in the summer! Too bad
we didn’t follow through with that elevator project when we built the addition in 1994, as