Homage to Memory

My hometown hero and cultural influence was my mother. We lived in a small prairie town; one of my earliest memories was being bundled up in a sleigh so my Dad could take us to the community hall where Mum was rehearsing for the school/community Christmas concert. She played piano for all the singers and hammered out Clayton's Grand March for the finale where all 110 students (12 grades) filed onto the stage followed by Santa.
She also played organ on Sunday for church services.
When I was 7, we moved to a house that was big enough to hold a piano and my aunt shipped us hers.
From that time on, our house was full of music as she loved to play. She also gave music lessons to local kids (25cents/half hour)
Many evenings my Dad and brother and I could listen to her play for hours and beg for the dramatic pieces from her Monster/Imperial/Mammoth books of light classics.
We moved from that town when I was 11, but she was always part of her musical community and continued to play late in life.
The first 30 bars of my composition is based on a piece I wrote for her 90th birthday, the remainder for the bombastic stuff we begged her to play.