Canada

When our eldest was just entering his teenage years, an upheaval at my place of work caused us to uproot our family and take the decision of leaving for good and emigrating to Canada after fourteen years living in Malta as a family. It was hard for all of us to adapt in a new country but we took with us the best talents we had, one of which was our musicality.

On arrival, one of the first things we did was to join the choir of the parish we started to attend. And yes, we were an asset to the group even though we had to learn all the hymns from scratch. The children meanwhile kept advancing in music while I took it as a hobby singing the repertoire I had brought over with me. Our eldest and youngest started to play the piano well enough to accompany me in my forays of entertaining at retirement homes and other places and even with other singers at ‘pot-pourri’ concerts and Kiwanis competitions. I was also called many times to entertain the residents of the seniors’ building where I used to work for a number of years until my retirement.

A friend of mine indicated earlier on, that he knew of a nearby church needing a director and organist for the liturgies. Our daughter was really good at the piano and although only fifteen at that time we both plunged right in and took over. She quickly adapted to playing the organ with its legato technique. This lasted quite a few years until we had to disband the choir for lack of attendance. No problem, I switched over to cantoring which I did for at least twenty years even after my daughter was replaced by other organists after she got married and moved away.

Meanwhile up to two years ago I was still entertaining at seniors’ residences at least once a month. Of course after I lost my accompanists who had to follow their life’s calling, I had to fend for myself. First I bought a good personal microphone, a cassette player and a small amplifier and accumulated lots of songs that seniors could relate to. From this my equipment evolved into a proper Karaoke machine with CD player and later into a laptop and bluetooth Karaoke. A couple of times I did gigs at seniors' residences in Malta while on holiday.