Songs for my Aunt Dorothy's death
My Aunt, Dorothy Strang, died on Oct 6, 2009 at approx 8 a.m. in Long Beach, CA.
My Mom (her sister), my Dad, my brother, Lance, and I were all in attendance.
We visited Dorothy 12 hours before she died. She was very agitated and very out of it, and surrounded by blaring news and sports TV channels on either side of her in the hospital room.
I brought a little cassette player and played classical cello music for her. My Mom, Annette L. Strang Walley, sang along with most of the instrumental pieces.
IT WAS AMAZING AND BEAUTIFUL!
- Schubert: Ave Maria
- Rimsky-Korsakov: The Flight of the Bumble Bee
- Schumann: Träumerei
- Dvorak: Songs My Mother Taught Me
- Saint-Seans: The Swan (from “Carnival of the Animals”)
- Godard: Berceuse
Hello, Reid,
I discovered your page while searching for Annette Strang, who, I now assume, is your mother. I knew Annette in the ’50s in Long Beach. We met in our junior high school orchestra where she played violin and I played flute and Piano. I heard her sing several times when she was in the 9th grade, and I was in 7th, and was totally blown away by her incredible voice at her young age. Thanks to my parents, I was already a huge opera fan, and, as an impressionable 12-year old, after listening to Annette sing, was convinced that I, too, could follow my own young dream of being a great musician, if only people would stop telling me I was too young to know what I wanted. What did they know? Annette certainly seemed to know what she wanted and was doing a very good job of going for it, and, besides, was only two years older than I!
I ultimately got my career in music – as a very good and continuously employed musician, though never, alas, in the “great” category! It’s fulfilled me though, and I’ve never regretted any of it for an instant.
I’d love to hear from you, if you have the time, and would ask you to tell me how Annette’s life and career progressed. I wish I had kept in touch with her, but I was pathetically shy and timid teen, so never was brave enough to try to contact her after we went on to attend different high schools.Thanks so muchFrancie GrossVallejo CA
Dorothy Strang was an asset to the Long Beach musical and literary community. Was an obituary pubiished? Not everyone knows about her publications of poetry and prose, a wonderful legacy.