Guitar Man

As you may remember, a little over a month ago we were blessed with meeting the nuns at the Shrine of the Blessed Sacrament in Alabama. Pat Denton and Carol Garrison were the 2 women who took us over there. In the days following, Pat invited us to attend a surprise birthday party for Carol. Jon and Paul were going to be in Charlotte and would not be back in time to attend. I did go and it was at that party that I met a woman I recognized from St. John Newmann church. It was years ago, while Fr. Jack was at that parish that I had seen this woman and her family. I was introduced to her and we struck up a conversation. We got to the topic of music because her girls are very musically talented and her one daughter was thinking about applying to the school of music at Georgia State University. I said that Paul had been in the school of music at that same school before his accident. I said he had been blessed by God because he had an incredible teacher, John Sutherland. She said that her daughter had been taking lessons from him since she was young. I was so excited that she knew who I was talking about and then said that her daughter must be a truly gifted musician since she has trained with this teacher for so long! I then told her the story of how he had influenced Paul's life.

In the summer after Paul's freshman year at college, he decided to audition for the school of music. Paul had been a big fish in a small pond at Parkview High School. He was an excellent electrical guitarist and he wanted to transfer that talent to the classical guitar. He practiced in the 2 months before that audition and went to the audition with a fair amount of confidence. He was to play in front of some of the teachers from the school of music. He called me right after his performance and told me what happened. He said that right after he played his song, one teacher basically shut him down. He was very sharp in his criticism and said Paul didn't belong in the school of music. It was John Sutherland who spoke up in Paul's defense and said he saw some raw talent and he would take Paul under wing and be his personal teacher. He said that Paul was basically a diamond in the rough.

What is so amazing about this is that John Sutherland has been called the "Dean of Guitarists" and "one of the finest teachers in the United States". He studied with Andre Segovia and Christopher Parkening. His transcriptions were used by Christopher Parkening in recording of "Simple Gifts". His students have been prize winners in the National Federation of Music Clubs Competition, Music Teachers National Association, and the American String Teachers Association. Three of the twelve students at the final Segovia Master Class studied with John Sutherland at the University of Georgia. He has served as adjudicator and clinician throughout the United States. I am not telling you all of this to brag in any way. It is with total amazement that our son was even near someone of this caliber! The chance meeting of these 2 people is still amazing to me to this day. It is one of the reasons that I still believe Paul was meant to do something with his talent. I know Jon continues to hold out great hope that Paul will play as well as he used to.

So back to Paul's telling me about his audition. Paul was so excited to know he would have John Sutherland as a teacher and he worked very hard to please him. He said he loved the fact that he couldn't fool this teacher at all. If Paul had not practiced as long and hard as he was expected to, Mr. Sutherland would know it instantly. Paul could fool some of the other students. The students were asked to critique each other and they would say that Paul had played very well. Mr. Sutherland would ask Paul directly, "Paul, how do you think you played." Paul on one occasion said that he played very poorly and admitted he had not put in the necessary time. Mr. Sutherland thanked him for being honest and he agreed with Paul's opinion - he had played poorly that day. Paul said he didn't want Mr. Sutherland to say that again, and he worked harder. When they first started working together, Mr. Sutherland told Paul he could hardly wait to show the teacher who criticized Paul so much at the first audition, just how talented Paul was. He said he could hardly wait until Paul's Senior audition! At the end of that first year, part of the exam would be to play a classical piece of music for the department. Of course, the one teacher was there who had not seen any talent in Paul. After playing his song, Paul looked up and Mr. Sutherland was smiling. The other teacher said something like, "I stand corrected. You do have a talent I did not see." Paul called us and his voice had more joy in it than I had ever heard. I could not believe it either. Jon (husband) said he wasn't surprised at all. He always thought Paul was an exceptional player. He was so very proud of Paul.

It was the next year that Paul decided to try to go for the gusto and try to make it big with a band, playing rock n roll. I was really disappointed with his decision, but prayed harder than ever before for him to find God's will in his life. Then the accident happened and I knew instantly that Mary had taken my prayers to God and they had been answered in a way I would not ever have imagined. While I wanted to see Paul go back to school and stop his pursuit into the music industry on the pathway he was on, I surely didn't want to see it come to a screaming halt. But God knew what was best and I believe that Mary interceded that day and kept Paul from an even worse injury. I believe in my heart that the thousands of prayers said for Paul changed the outcome of his accident.

I have even more confirmation today. That night of the birthday party, after I shared some of this with Cindy, whose daughter also took lessons with John Sutherland, I asked her if she had his phone number. I wanted to call him and talk to him about getting Paul started with some in classical training excercises so that he would have a goal to work toward. She gave me his number and I was thrilled to have it. I talked to Jon about it and he said it was worth a shot. I was not sure John Sutherland would even remember Paul after 2 years. But before I could call him, I lost the piece of paper. Then my mother got sick and has been in the ICU at the hospital 2 times and some other things have come up that have kept me so busy I haven't stopped for a moment. I didn't know Cindy's last name, but I remembered another amazing thing. When Marie's sister came to Atlanta last summer, after accepting a job with Fr. Jack, she lived with us for a few months. She had been her about a month and she was invited to live with a family who lived a lot closer to the parish where she was working. She decided to stay with us, as she was already comfortable here and she had had enough change in her life for awhile after moving to a new city and working at a new job. I learned at the birthday party for Carol, that is was Cindy's family who had invited Anne to live with them! Small, small world we live in. I knew that Anne could give me the phone number to Cindy and I would be able to get John Sutherland's phone number again.

I had not mentioned my intentions to Paul at first because he can become negative about his music very easily. He feels he can't play very well, but he can. He has been playing more and more each week and also plays the piano every day. I watch him get lost in the music for an hour or so at a time and he is oblivious to the world around him while he is playing. So this past Sunday, I talked to him about John Sutherland and I confessed that I was planning on calling him and asking him if he would possibly be interested in helping Paul in any way. I told Paul that I had lost the number and was going to make the calls necessary to get his number again. Paul opened his cell phone and said, "I have it right here. John Sutherland." Jon and I looked at each other and just laughed. I asked Paul if he wanted to call Mr. Sutherland himself or did he want Jon or me to call. He said he would call him. I could not believe Paul was so agreeable about it. He has said a number of times that he didn't want to take lessons from anyone, he could not play anymore.

Paul decided to write down a few things to say first. He said he didn't want to stutter or sound stupid. He got the laptop and wrote down what he wanted to say to Mr. Sutherland. Then he made the phone call. He started out with, "Hello, is this John Sutherland? You may not remember me, my name is Paul Fidero. I was a student of yours at Georgia .....oh, you do remember me? Well, I was in an accident almost 2 years ago and I......yes sir, I am doing much better and I was wondering if I could take personal lessons from you again...... Yes sir, that would be great. But I do have one problem. I don't have a guitar. Do you have any that I could buy? You do? That is fantastic. Okay then, I will call you again on Friday." (The reason Paul doesn't have a classical guitar is because he had been using his brother Jon's and Jon had it with him in Virginia.) The whole time Paul was talking to Mr. Sutherland, I had my hands clasped in prayer and I was looking at the statue of Blessed Mother Mary and begged her to open the heart of Mr. Sutherland and let him say yes to Paul. It was such a huge step for Paul to take because I am sure it has been fear that has kept him from moving forward with his music. I think he is too afraid to face what he may have lost. I started to cry with joy after Paul hung up. I jumped up and hugged him. Then Jon, Paul and I all hugged each other. I was so excited that I didn't know who to call first to share this wonderful news. I said to Paul, " You need to tell Judy, she will be thrilled for you." I thought of her because she always cries when she watches Paul play. Paul's amazing response?? "We have to tell the nuns at the Shrine!!"

Amen, Paul.

Love,
Jon and Rebecca