When I first met Jenny, it was by email. Her handle was “music_lover_59”. I couldn’t have known then how appropriate that was. Music was the stuff of life for Jenny. She enjoyed a breadth of music and her vast collection of music files and CDs showed it: classical music, classic rock (especially from the 70s and 80s), alternative, pop, jazz and even country.
One rule of our home was that whoever is washing the dishes gets to choose the music. But, outside of that, our house was filled with sounds that Jenny curated. Every morning, Jenny played KDFC on the stereo as we woke up and got ready for the day. Then, when she was in her home office, you could hear it all: Coltrane, The Bee Gees, Mozart, The Stones, Bryan Ferry….
As for playing music for her own enjoyment, Jenny’s preference was music composed by artists from the Classical Period like Mozart and Beethoven. However, she also tended to play dreamy pieces such as Debussy’s Clair de Lune. Just as Jenny started the day with classical music, she generally ended it with classical music also. We remember fondly that Jenny would play when the boys washed up and got ready for bed. It was almost as if to say, “I enjoyed helping you with homework, cooking dinner, eating with you and having downtime with you. Now it’s time for me to comfort you on your way to bed.” And, Jenny did this through her music.
More than anything else, though, music for Jenny was about connection. Connection with her kids, connection with me. When I went back to Minnesota, Jenny would frequently ask me to bring back piano books from my childhood. She loved to open them up and play the songs I played when I was a boy, decades earlier. For Dylan and Tyler, Jenny played alongside them whether they played piano, trumpet or even recorder. There is so much to say about this topic, however, that it's worthy of a post on its own and will be the subject of Part 2.
