|
TRUE STORY
OF A FORMER CANCER PATIENT
This is a true story of a woman who had terminal cancer.
Her uncle gave her a copy of one of Paul Lloyd Warner's piano albums. After listening to the music, she memorized
the entire album and eventually went into total remission.
One woman in her thirties came up to me when I was selling my music at an art show in Tucson, Arizona in 1987. She picked up one of my cassettes entitled THE MIRACLE OF DOLPHINS for piano  and said aloud "This music saved my life". She did not know that I was the person who composed it and thought I was a salesman. She told me that she had had cancer in her female parts and that it had spread throughout her body. It was terminal. She was sent to a hospice to live out her remaining days. Her uncle brought her a cassette of the music to bring her peace in the final days of her life.
She listened to the piano album on headphones and reported that she found something so beautiful and inspirational in the music that she really wanted to live. There was something in the music that gave her hope to go on living. She then made a pact with herself to listen to the music all day long to the point that she would memorize each track. When she could play that music back to herself, she knew she would be healed. She continued for a month or two until she could play the entire album back to herself in her own mind. At some point afterward, her pain diminished. Eventually the doctors told her she went into remission. In fact, it was so complete that her doctors were amazed and she could be released from the hospice.
At this point everyone around her at the art show listened intently. She stood there, telling us her incredible story. The woman then asked me if I could personally deliver her message of gratitude to the man who made this music, who saved her life. With tears running down my eyes, I softly said to her that I am that man. She looked at me intently, saying: "You, you made this music? You saved my life?" I told her that I did not save her life, but that her own indwelling spirit saved her and that the music was merely a catalyst to help drive her to that end.. It gave her hope to live.
She started to cry, speaking aloud, "You saved my life, Paul, I would not have lived without your music." Once again I said to her that it was her great desire to live that saved her and that the music was a means to that end. She then emphatically said that if she had not memorized the music so that she could play it back to herself in her own mind, she would not be alive today. Finally, I believed her as tears streamed down my cheeks. I had always dreamed of such a moment and here it was happening out of the blue. I then rushed around my table to the front of my sales booth. A small crowd had gathered around, listening to the woman's inspiring story. I asked her if I may hug her and she said yes. At that moment, in that hug, I realized that my life's work to create healing music was not in vain. Here was the truth, the story revealed for everyone to hear. That evening I pondered this event and wept alone for hours. It was my greatest moment as an artist. My personal story in creating THE MIRACLE OF DOLPHINS was one that also saved my life metaphorically. I had been through some very bad times and at that point, I saw the reason. That music was made for me, for everyone, and for that lady in Tucson I will always remember.
Paul Lloyd Warner
Top of Page
|
