yakalskovich: (Default)
Maru ([personal profile] yakalskovich) wrote2010-09-30 09:24 pm

Totally made my day...

At the end of a long day with lots of spontaneity at work and an excursion to feed the Nazgul's budgies, I was sitting in the train feeling slightly grumpy and only wanting home any more, idly listening to two women in their late fifties that had come from Oktoberfest and had obviously met there, because they were telling each other basics about their life stories.

I couldn't help it, they were right behind me, and not quite worth getting my MP3 player back out for.

One of them was telling the other about how she'd been born in Cincinnati and come to Germany as a professional singer, and how much she loves classical music, etc.

"Can you sing 'Ave Maria'?" the other asked.

And she just started to sing.

In a soft, perfect mezzo, very warm and gentle, not loud at all, with a bit too much tremolo (but that was to be expected, in a almost-sixty-year-old voice), she sang the Bach/Gounod Ave Maria in the middle of a suburban train.

Everybody turned their heads and fell silent.

The woman she sang it for had tears in her eyes. I don't know what the music reminded her of (my storyteller's instinct tells me it might have been her mother's funeral), but it was an utterly moving moment.

It had not been an especially nice, or just remarkable, day for me, before. But now, it definitely was.

One I won't forget.-

[identity profile] open-the-blinds.livejournal.com 2010-09-30 07:28 pm (UTC)(link)
You always have the best adventures on your trains: Clint Eastwood-man and his faithful dog, now the lovely singing lady...almost makes me wish we had some cool trains here. :)
ceitfianna: (found my wings)

[personal profile] ceitfianna 2010-09-30 09:36 pm (UTC)(link)
Wow, that sounds amazing.

[identity profile] tekalynn.livejournal.com 2010-10-01 01:06 am (UTC)(link)
Beautiful.
silveraspen: sumi-e painting of two mice (quiet little mice (sumi-e))

[personal profile] silveraspen 2010-10-01 04:17 am (UTC)(link)
Oh, that's wonderful.