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1978-83 Second Station and questions about Unity
In September 1978 Harvey, with Carol and baby Daniel, were sent to their second ‘Station’ in the Medway Towns Circuit. They moved into a brand new house in Lordswood, South Chatham, Kent. (St David’s United Church, Lordswood) I could sense it was all very exciting – a new adventure, in a modern young community, completely…
July 1977 – Ordination Symphony
Harvey’s ordination as a Minister in the Methodist Church took place in Bridlington, Yorkshire, on a hot summer’s evening in July 1977. I had been left alone in my ‘cell’ case at the Manse in Winsford, while Carol with Daniel (their 9-month old son) and all the family and many friends, gathered to share in…
1975 – 77 First Station & Music
In August 1975 we moved to Winsford in Cheshire, Harvey’s first Circuit appointment as a Probationer minister. We stayed for 3 years. During these days, too often my bow and I were left inside our violin case, so it was largely from within the darkness I picked up and ‘heard’ the musical overtones and undertones…
Intermezzo – Timeless Love & Joyful Sex
It was at the very end of 1972 that Harvey met Carol and fell in love. It began at Bevendean Hospital, Brighton, while singing Christmas carols on the wards with Dorset Gardens Methodist Church young people – and I should know, as Harvey had taken me along! From now on, through courtship, marriage, pro-creating, giving…
1972 Is Music the Food of Grief?
I remember only two occasions in 1972 when Harvey took me out of my case to play; both very soon after his mother, Gladys, had died on 14 May. She had been suffering from Bulbar Palsy, a form of Motor Neurone Disease. Following a conversation with the College Principal, Revd Dr John Habgood, about a…
1971-1975 A new world with expanding horizons
Although I was largely silent and un-played, I was still able to hear the sound wave of emotions entering Harvey’s body, giving him a sense, an echo perhaps, of a vast new world full of new possibilities. In these four years from September 1971 at The Queens College and the University of Birmingham, Harvey’s body…
1970 onwards – Audible Cheesecake or Sonic Wallpaper?
With this new-found energy and excitement for Harvey, I became acutely aware that we were hardly ever playing anymore. Records and scores had been thrown away, and I was left alone – books and reading filled his mind and body. Harvey became hungry for knowledge, and his studies at Theological College were all-absorbing. His being…
1969 The year of change – who’s calling? God or Music? Or Both?
Our wonderful visit to Austria was a prelude to a time of dramatic change for Harvey – and consequently for me, too. We can now see how Christmas & New Year in Vienna opened up pathways leading to a decisive cross-road for my young player. (One reader of this diary has already witnessed a ‘resurrection’).…
1966-68 Post-Academy days (3) – Vienna highlights
Harvey was becoming increasingly frustrated, working in the Bank. He found the world of finance lacking a great deal in ‘musicality’. Can music mix with money? In September 1968, with adolescent impetuosity, he wrote directly to the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, ‘out of the blue’, and secured a ticket for the world-famous New Year’s Day Concert…
1966-8 Post-Academy Days (2): Chaos in Church & more music
In spite of all, it wasn’t long before Harvey found ways to exercise his musicality again…… With his sister Carole, he joined the choir at Dorset Gardens Methodist Church in Brighton, and in October 1966, he witnessed an extraordinary event which left him shaken and upset. The Annual Labour Party Conference was in full swing…