I remember Ms. Galang

I remember Ms. Galang. She was my piano teacher. But really, she was so much more than that.

I remember the very first time I saw Ms. Galang. I was still a kid, not more than 7 years old, and I remember thinking as I saw her scrawney bony fingers, her dated single old spinster clothes and the delicate wrinkles lining softly around her doe shaped eyes and her neck, "What an ancient woman". Ms Galang was your old school piano teacher, one of those who taught kids to read the notes in the old fashioned way (do re mi fa etc.) and not with alphabetical letters (a b c... i don't know why i'm putting this in, all of you know what 'alphabetical letters' mean anyway). She taught us with a stern stick in one hand and a gentle one occasionally patting our backs if we made mistakes. She was an avid collector of dolls, too. She has dolls from every country in the world. And I mean EVERY country. Mention a country and she'll tell you what kind of dolls they have there and the story on how she got them. Her office - heck, the whole of the music department where she was the director - was filled with creepy sometimes freaky and sometimes breathtakingly amazing looking dolls in glass boxes.

I use to fear her when I was a kid. I remember dreading Saturday afternoons because I know it would mean one whole hour at her mercy. I actually had reasons to be scared of her. You see, I wasn't particularly the best student or a good one at the least. I hated playing the piano. I mean what kind of a kid would rather want to sit down in a stuffy room sweating their ass off in sticky leather chairs facing black and white keys when you can play outside! under the sun! with kids at your own age! and doing way cooler stuffs like make-believe war skirmishes and sword battles. So I went to every class with her then unprepared. To pass the time away and to distract her from the fact that I sucked BIG time, I would try to engage her in pointless conversations usually about the stuffs that happened in her life.

I asked all sorts of things! I asked her about her family, about her experiences during the world war 2 era, on how it felt like to be one of the first students in UP, I even asked about her past boyfriends (when I still had really no idea what the heck it was anyway) and the various reasons why she decided to collect dolls, of all things. And when I learned that she was a part time french teacher too, on days when I absolutely had no idea what to play because I absolutely forgot I had piano classes in the first place, I would ask her to translate every word I can think of into French, and instead of being scolded for not doing my last week's homework, we would end up having a mini-class.

I started practicing when my mom told me that if I did good in Ms Galang's class, she would reward me with the doll I've been gawking at in her office since day 1. (A Cleopatra doll with a gorgeous Ankh necklace around her and a note of 'hello' from the Egyptian President himself!). This was of course an unfortunate lie from my mom but by this time me and Ms Galang, what with all my interviews, have become sort of close. We were so close indeed that I already felt guilty trying to trick her with my conversations. So instead, I did the complete opposite. I practiced really hard so that she wouldn't have to teach me so much in piano and would rather talk to me about her life instead.

I treasured every conversations with her. I especially loved the part when she would retell he stories about the war and how they survived the Japanese occupation. And also the time in her life when she was a glamorous concert piano artist who would travel all over the world playing romantic pieces to heads of state and rich classical music aficionados. She would tell me about the great loves of her life in every country and would let me read their fiery passionate love letters for her. It was great. And in no time, Ms Galang the piano teacher had become Ms Galang my best friend. I looked up to her and wondered if ever I'd be a spinster, I'd be exactly like her. Young at heart but with the wisdom and experiences of the world that only time could ever provide. She was my hero and I was her biggest fan for 11 years. Well, I guess even until now. Our friendship was so deep that when I started college, she still asked me to come home every weekend so that we could have our little piano lessons (for free) and our lengthy conversations. I treasured every single second I spent with her.

I don't really know why I'm talking about her so suddenly. I guess I just miss her. We haven't talked to each other for quite some time now. I stopped piano lessons 5 years ago. And I haven't even touched our piano for several months now. I wonder if she still thinks about our hourly conversations then. I wonder if she still talks about her world war stories to someone else... and who. I wonder if she has given her Cleopatra doll to some kid already.

I don't really want to know the answers to those. It doesn't matter. The only thing I want is for her to be happy and be alright. You see, Ms Galang was my piano teacher. But both us know, she was so so much more than that.

PS: one of the most memorable conversations we had was her love for the movie Somewhere in Time and her love for Christopher Reeves. I'd like to share the song she taught me.

*image taken from http://medekis.deviantart.com