The Lost Bagpiper

Posted by on September 12, 2012 in Blog, Blogs | 0 comments

The Lost BagpiperAs a bagpiper, I was asked by a funeral director to play at a graveside service for a homeless man who had no family or friends. The funeral was to be held at a cemetery in a remote countryside area. This man would be the first to be laid to rest there.As I was not at all familiar with the backwoods area, I became lost and being a typical man, did not stop for directions. I finally arrived an hour late. I saw the backhoe and the crew who were eating lunch, but the hearse was nowhere in sight.I apologized to the workers for my tardiness and stepped to the side of the open grave where I saw the vault lid already in place.I assured the workers I would not hold them up for long, but this was really the proper thing to do. The workers gathered around while eating their lunch. I proceeded to play out my heart and soul.As I played all the workers began to weep. I played and I played like I’d never played before, from ‘Going Home’ and ‘The Lord is My Shepherd’ to ‘Flowers of the Forest ‘. I closed the lengthy session with ‘Amazing Grace’ and walked to my car.As I was opening the car door and taking off my coat, I overheard one of the workers saying to another, “Sweet Jesus, Mary ‘n Joseph, I have never seen nothin’ like that before and I’ve been putting in Septic Tanks for over twenty years”.

Leave a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *