ANOTHER WAY TO A PERFECT DAY FOR OUR MARGARET

 

To the management and staff at Regis Camp Hill, Alexis and we of the Esk Community Choir would like to express our sincere gratitude for allowing us this opportunity to sing and for your kind hospitality. It was a bright blue-skyed, crisp morning when members of the Esk Community Choir made their way down the highway to the warm reception by residents and carers at Regis, Camp Hill where our Margaret and her family had been anxiously marking time for our arrival.

It has been said that there is no harm in repeating a good thing and that good thing was an encore of the choir’s Divas and Delights – Encore.  This new audience was in for a treat. It was a rousing repertoire kicking off with The Circus, a tribute to Johann Strauss.  Then, riding the ebb and flow of the audience’s energy, in a conglomeration of colourful costumes and to Alexis’s flawless accompaniments, solos, duos, trios, ensembles and choir, took these old coves along on a delightful musical journey, their reactions priceless. 

Kathleen, Patrina and Susie  "It's May"

Sitting front and centre alongside her family, Margaret, her world now shifted, her mobility now
compromised.  However, still her love and appreciation of her choir and of this music appeared tangible, her extraordinary talent now locked into her tiny frame. 

Margaret came into the choir family almost 16 years ago, not only as an accomplished accompanist with an uncanny capacity for vivid recall, but as a friend. Margaret was, and still is a good friend-maker, a good friend-keeper, and kind – a small word, but still a greatly underrated thing in this world at the moment and we hoped this day had been another precious memory for Margaret to lock away.  

The concert concluded with one of the frequently called upon pieces from the songbook of Margaret’s time with the choir, Lachlan Tigers. It is an Aussie folk song, strangely addictive; and thanks to Malcolm’s and Aydan’s practical demonstration, a heck of a way to learn about shearing.  Its cadence can illuminate a room, but isn’t that the power of a song? It can cause a shift and reconnect an audience to parts of themselves they thought they had lost.

By: Sue Walker

Susie, Patrina and Ruth  "Laughing Gypsies"

Bob 'Some Enchanted Evening"

Roger and Denis "A couple of Swells"

Helene, Susie and Kathleen  "Anything Goes" 

Aydan "I Wonder What the King is doing Tonight"

Denise "I Wonder What the King is doing Tonight" 
With Aydan.

The antics of "Anything Goes"