Lyla's Story

- by Andy Pei

This story is about Lyla Aronson, a wonderful senior center resident, and how our music influenced her.  After one of our concerts at Chelsea, we were contacted by the senior director. “One of our residents, Lyla Aronson, used to play piano and would love to be selected on Saturday to try her hands at the piano with you.”  

We rehearsed together, and there she told us her story. Lyla used to play the piano when she was a young child. She was extremely talented but stopped playing after her husband, a US military officer, died in the line of duty. With a limited federal pension, she had to work multiple jobs to support her two children and pay for their college studies. After years of hard work, she’s retired and living at Chelsea. She said she is inspired by our music, and with the new piano in their recreation room, she wants to try playing more from now on.

Lyla told us about her two favorite songs: Moonlight Sonata and Malaguena. We all signed a copy of Moonlight Sonata and gifted it to her during our recital. She was so happy to receive the gift. It was truly a heartwarming experience to be able to interact with one of the residents, and we hope that even more people are influenced by what we are doing here at IMPACT.