Voices of Angels

Every week when we’d visit my grandparents, my oma would ask if I brought my piano books so I could play for her. If I’m honest, it annoyed me a bit because I really just wanted to watch TV. But we were close and I loved her dearly, so I played.

She was on dialysis, and it wasn’t going well. The sicker she got, the softer she spoke, and with her thick German accent it became so hard to communicate! I felt so frustrated because she’d try to talk to me and I could barely understand her. But when I played music, we were on the same page. We understood. I started playing for her every chance I could.

Sometimes she’d start sobbing in the middle of a song, startling me. I remember specifically she would cry when I played “Traumerei” by Schumann. “Traumerei” means “dreaming” in German. She’d say, “It’s so beautiful.” It still chokes me up.

I saw music differently. It connected us. Oma was dying, and she wanted me to play. That was what she wanted from me in that last bit of time she had on earth. 

One day she told me softly, “When I die, I hope they let me come down and listen to you play.”

I played at her funeral. I was 16.

A year later, I attended the historic SLC 10th ward building rededication in my opa’s place, who was too ill to go. President Hinckley came to rededicate it.

It was a defining moment for me when he walked into the chapel. I KNEW he was a prophet! At the end, we sang The Spirit of God, and something amazing happened. During the 3rd verse, I heard singing above me, a beautiful higher harmony fading in and out, like trying to get tuned into a radio station just right. As my mind tried to grasp what was happening, the thought entered my mind, "Those are angels." 

Later, I discovered my mom heard it too. We both knew my oma, her mom, was in that choir of angels! Music connecting us again. 

At the height of government corruption, secret oaths, murder, and pure evil, Nephi performs miracles and “angels did minister unto him daily.” 3 Ne 7:18

Daily! Can you imagine? 

I only had one fleeting experience, and it’s imprinted on me forever.

And yet, maybe they’re closer than we think.

“I testify of angels... who come and go all around us” -Holland