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217 Steinway Model K. Tall black upright crypt, purchased with proceeds from a CalSTRS lump-sum payout, Richard being Joel’s named beneficiary. At the time of Joel’s last visit we had a spinet. He played, sitting down in a moment when we were busy with our tasks and he had time to touch some chords of a piece I could not name, contemplative and gentle, a beautiful surprise of music in the midafternoon. The music moved me, and I left what I was doing—folding laundry, I think—to listen more closely. At my appearance in the doorway Joel stopped. “Oh, don’t stop,” I said. “You play so beautifully.” He did not resume but got up from the piano as if to leave the room. “Do you practice much at home?” I asked. He hedged, then mumbled about the difficulty with his fingers , which could no longer feel the keys. He spoke directly, however, about the piano, saying that we should replace it with a better instrument. He had listened to our daughter play; she had reached a stage at which she needed to hear a truer sound, he said. When Joel’s father sent claim forms showing that Richard was the beneficiary of Joel’s retirement account, we chose the 218 rebuilt Steinway as an appropriate purchase with which to honor his bequest. It turned out that Richard had misread the forms, and there was only enough in the account for a down payment. We took out a loan for the rest. ...

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