Notes of Love: Stories of Monica and Max - Peter Clark

A joyful Christmas celebration with Peter, Monica, and baby Maxwell during their first holiday season as a family.

It’s been said that opposites attract, in our case that could not have been more truthful. Monica was a pianist, and I was a Mechanical Engineer driven by Math and Science.  I knew nothing of playing music and that was her life.

As a young boy our class went to Juilliard and watched a recital for contenders. I was confused how with just one song; these judges were able to determine a potential student’s ability to play the piano. Monica explained “technique” to me and how Beethoven’s hand spanned an octave between his index and fifth finger. With much smaller hands she had to play the same keystrokes without striking the key too hard when moving her hands.

Some friends of mine came over one evening and asked her to play for them.  After a Chopin Polonaise one of them said “Don’t you know anything from this century?”  She responded “Like what” he named a few songs, and she played them with ease and without sheet music.  Though I could not read sheet music I eventually learned to look at it and decipher the difficulty level.

One day we all watched the movie “Big” and Max liked the song “Heart and Soul” that Tom Hanks and Robert Loggia played on the floor piano at FAO Schwarz in NYC. He asked his mom to play it for him.  She told him that it was a Duet.  He sat down next to her and taught him his part in no time.  That was when I began to see the talent, he displayed in playing musical instruments beyond the guitar.  We all went to that store one Christmas, and they got to see the piano from the movie.

It’s also been said that babies in the womb hear music and Monica practiced every day while she was pregnant. Who am I to judge but my mother was like me, the only instrument she could play was the radio.  I hope and pray that this scholarship will go to students that will better themselves.  They are both dearly missed but for them it’s not too late.

-Peter Clark

Husband to Monica & Father to Maxwell