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(Editor’s note: Thanks to teacher Rosemarie Reichard of the Older Adult Program of Sunnyvale Cupertino Adult Education for sending in stories from Chi Chun Chen, Hsiangmei Chen, Ying Mei Chiang, Galina Feller, Rifika Kladnjak, Lidia Klyurinova, Lina Kuo, Linda Lau, Lily Lee, Yine Len, Mayumi Murayama, Rosa Polo, Martha Sanchez, Shantaben Shah, Mira Vlastelica, Maureen Wei, and Joanne Yu. More stories will be published in future issues.)

Classical music
by Mayumi Murayama

                I love listening to music. I like all genre of music. But for many years, I usually listen to classical music. I like to go to concerts rather than listening to CDs. So my husband and I often go to classical concerts. In the U.S., we had a wonderful time hearing the San Francisco Symphony and the Boston Symphony. Usually I was very tired when we went to listen to the concert. But after I listened to the music, I felt better. I feel the music brings my body’s cells to life.

            My father-in-law taught the violin for many years in Japan. I heard he was one of the members that made the first quartet in Japan. My father-in-law passed away last January. He was 103 years old. But he was fine until he was 102. He played the piano, made haiku poems, and read books at over age 100. And he continued to love music the most of all. He made a song of celebrating when he was 100 years old.

            We love classical music very much because we feel the presence of our father. Now our daughter is studying to sing classical music. She hopes she will be an opera singer in the future. I pray the dream will come true.