As soon as the Christmas Day High Mass was over at St. Mark’s Episcopal Church (about 12:35 pm), I raced home where I already had my suitcase packed and ready to go. My friend, Cindy Scheinert, picked me up and we headed for the airport, where I had a flight scheduled with a 2:20 boarding time. There was a short hop to Kona, and then on to Los Angeles where I arrived around midnight. My son picked me up and drove me to his house, where I picked up his second car and drove to my sister’s house.

For four whole days, I thought nothing about my life as an organist, and enjoyed time with my family. My project was crocheting Cinnamoroll, a Sanrio character, which I finished in about 2-1/2 days.

I especially enjoyed playing with my 7-year-old grandson and I’m sure you’ll find this exchange amusing. We were playing a videogame (but I don’t remember the name), and I needed to pick an avatar to represent my character. My grandson found one with dark hair which he thought looked like me, but then he added, “But … it doesn’t have enough wrinkles!” (Thanks, kiddo!)

Which is a reminder that we’re all getting older.

I was painfully reminded that it’s not just our bodies … it’s also electronic organs which are coming to the end of their useful lives. On Christmas Eve at Nu‘uanu Congregational Church, I heard some popping sounds coming out from the organ speakers and the full registrations I had chosen for accompanying the hymns gradually got softer and softer, even as i pushed the volume pedal to the max. After the hymn was over, I turned the instrument off, and waited until the next hymn to turn it back on, which allowed me to at least start the hymns at a normal volume before it petered out. This was only a partial solution, but the truth of the matter was, I was panicked.

When I got home, I wrote an email to message to Bob Alder, of Church Organs Hawaii, to explain the problem. His response: We are sorry to learn of the noise problems that the organ had on Christmas Eve. That organ is past its prime and it is not surprising that it has intermittent problems. In our opinion, The Rodgers company no longer fully supports organs of that vintage (over 30 years old), it is not worth attempting any more repairs.

A new Allen organ would cost over $60,000 … which in my opinion would be risky, because there’s no guarantee that the church will be able to find an organist after I can no longer play. The company did have a used instrument for about $15,000, but this again would be a risk to spend that much money, not knowing who might be able to play it.

But then, yesterday afternoon, we received some good news from Church Organs Hawaii:

We would like to offer a possible solution. We will be receiving, very soon, an Allen Organ that has only become available because the church that has it is upgrading to a new more advanced model. As a courtesy we would like to offer to donate this organ to Nuuanu Congregational. The only cost would be for the delivery and installation which can all be done in one day. Please see our attached proposal.

Crisis averted! To be honest, if there were no longer an organ to play at Nuuanu, I could not in good conscience play the piano in its place, because I simply don’t feel adequate playing the piano. I don’t play any piano repertoire; in fact, I don’t even own any piano music since I donated all of my husband’s music to the University of Hawaii when he died.

Thank you, Bob Alder, for this offer!

(Of course, my preference is for pipe organs, which may cost initially more money, but in the long run, last much longer. The Beckerath organ is in 2025 celebrating its 50th birthday and sounds just the same as it did 50 years ago. There will be an upcoming concert by my organ students in a couple of weeks—all are invited!)