This e-mail was received from Michael Boo:
Fanfare (March 5, 2004)
The Emotion of Drum Corps
Trisha Longo of Dickson City, Pa., sent in a story about how she took her grandmother to a drum corps show and her grandmother fell in love with Phantom Regiment’s 1994 rendition of Debussy’s “Clair de Lune.” Later, suffering from Alzheimer’s, Trisha would play the piece on her CD for her grandmother, whose eyes would fill up with tears as she connected with the piece.
If you haven’t read the story in the link below, I ask you to please click there and allow yourself to experience the same overwhelming emotions I experienced when I first received her story.
There is an update to the story. I just received the following from Trisha:
Michael, my Grandmother, Helen E. Williams, passed away quietly on Friday, April 15, 2005.
She had a long, desperate fight with Alzheimer’s, as well as other ailments, and I should tell you that in the quietness of that nursing home room, at 1:26am EST, she passed into Eternity with the serene sounds of “Phantom Regiment” in her ears. I had brought a small DVD player to her room a year ago so that we could play music for her. everytime I would visit, I would open the drawer, pull out ‘Phantom regiments CD’ and play the Ballads for her. Unable to speak but able to hear, she succombed to the rapture that is Heaven 2 weeks ago. I wept openly by her bedside, kneeling on the floor, and played “Clair De Lune” ONE LAST TIME holding her hand as I said my final “Good Bye”. She was at peace, and all the faithful DCI friends and family who have gone before us, welcomed her to the Great Beyond as she entered in with the wonderful, diminishing chords of Debussey guiding her every step.
THANK YOU DCI, and to you Michael for printing my story, and ESPECIALLY “PHANTOM REGIMENT” for literally letting a person experience ‘Heaven on Earth’.
Trisha A. Longo
