For Sally

I’d like to dedicate my first blog entry to Sally Copeland, one of the women who encouraged me to start Musical Beginnings 14 years ago.   Sally lost a battle with breast cancer on July 31.  

Sally and I were in a Mommy and Me class together when our daughters were toddlers.   We wrestled with things like potty training, finding the best playgrounds, and whether or not to dilute apple juice or serve it straight.  We helped our little girls with art projects we chuckled at but never threw out.   We commiserated over how shockingly stubborn a 2-year-old can be at one moment, but how sweet the next.   We went on fire station field trips and sang songs.

Occasionally the talk would turn to local children’s classes:  which ones we liked, which we didn’t, what was nearby, what should be.  I mentioned once my background in teaching music to children, and Sally jumped on it.   Start a class in Westchester, she suggested.   She would enroll her little Emma.  I nodded vaguely.

Then she suggested it the next week.  And the next.  Until my polite murmurs turned into a real consideration of the idea.  Until I finally started one class in a borrowed room of a nearby church.  And true to her word, she and Emma were in it. 

They stayed with me for years.  I have fond memories of Emma up on stage in one of our first “Entertainers” groups, and of Sally rocking and singing to Fiona in Mommy and Me classes. 

We lost track of each other after that, as our girls grew older and into other things.  But I’ve always been grateful for her early encouragement, and know that a little bit of Sally will always be at the heart of Musical Beginnings.