An elder piano player is giving back joy to the place that gave her back health.
“I came here as a patient, and now I can give something back,” said 84-year-old Bonnie Fay, who first came to Bryn Mawr Village nursing home in Pennsylvania.
Guillain-Barré syndrome, a rare disorder in which the body’s immune system attacks its own nerves, had left her paralyzed, and she arrived at the nursing facility facing a long and uncertain recovery.
In those difficult weeks, she found comfort in the one thing that had been with her since childhood.
“I found that the piano was very good for me,” Fay said. “It lifted my spirits tremendously.”
Somewhere along the way, GNN was told, she made herself a promise. She thought, ‘someday I’ll come back and play here.'”
Today, and despite her advanced years, Fay fulfills that promise regularly, playing the Bryn Mawr Village piano for residents recovering from illness, surgery, and injury. She had been a patient here not once, but twice—the first time after a series of about 7 orthopedic surgeries.
“Bryn Mawr Village helped me through some very hard times, and I never forgot that,” Fay said. “When I wanted to come back and play, they arranged to pick me up and bring me here. That meant a great deal to me.”
Born in Philadelphia, she grew up in South Jersey and Penn Valley and began studying piano at age 7.
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“I came from a musical family,” she said. “My mother had a beautiful, trained voice.”
After high school, she began studying with Louis Kazze, then the director of music at Overbrook High School, a relationship that lasted nearly 30 years. Fay went on to teach piano for many years, traveling to students’ homes in all kinds of weather.
At the nursing home, some residents pull their chairs close to listen. Others linger afterward to talk. Some have since become Fay’s friends, calling to chat about music and life beyond Bryn Mawr.
Outstanding medical issues kept Fay away from the piano for around 10 months, and when she finally returned, residents were itching to hear her play again.
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“Bonnie was a patient here twice, and now she’s the person our residents look forward to seeing,” said Charles Light of Bryn Mawr Village. “When she was away for those 10 months, people kept asking when she was coming back. That tells you what she means to this place.”
Once, the piano helped Fay through her own recovery at Bryn Mawr Village. Now she sits at that same piano, playing for people in their own recovery.
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