Last night, I was with “my peeps” — the members of the Hawaii Chapter American Guild of Organists. Our Dean, John Renke, hosted a New Year’s reception at the Pacific Club, and during the evening, a photo was taken of five of us, as shown here. All of the ladies above are organists, with the exception of Betsy McCreary (and she was married to an organist, John McCreary) and all of us have been widowed in the last few years. Here are the churches that were represented, and a little bit about their spouses:

Nyle Hallman, Organist Emerita of Central Union Church. Her husband, Roy Hallman, was the Founder-Director of the Honolulu Boy Choir, and the Choir Director of Central Union Church for 29 years. Read about Roy Hallman here.
Margaret Lloyd, Principal Organist, Central Union Church. I wrote about the death of her husband, Rob Lloyd, a Seventh-Day Adventist minister, on this blog.
Betsy McCreary, widow of John McCreary, Canon Organist, St. Andrew’s Cathedral. Here is a description of John’s funeral (“Celebration John McCreary”)
Katherine Crosier, Past Organist, Lutheran Church of Honolulu; Chapel Organist, Iolani School. Read the obituary of my husband, Carl Crosier, here.
Gloria Faltstrom, Past Organist, Waiokeola Congregational Church. Her husband, Curtis Faltstrom, died of cancer. I found his obituary here.

In case you are wondering where the term “merry widow” came from,  it was the title of an operetta by Franz Lehar (1870-1948). According to Wikipedia, the story concerned a rich widow and her countrymen’s attempt to keep her money in the principality by finding her the right husband. There have also been several film adaptations of this story, as well as a French TV series. And on the weird side, a “merry widow” is a type of corset. The Merry Widows of Joe Cain is the name of a Mardi Gras women’s mystic society in Mobile, Alabama; and The Merry Widows is also the name of a psychobilly band. (If you, like me, don’t know what the heck a psychobilly band is, I looked it up: a fusion genre of rock music that mixes punk rock, rockabilly, and other genres.)

We widows resolved to meet for lunch soon, and I look forward to renewed friendships with all of them. Of course, there were lots of other people at the Dean’s Reception, and here is a group photo.