JoAnn Shade
Special to the Ashland Times-Gazette
This week began without much fanfare, but before Monday ended, it was marked by two losses that brought great grief to my soul. The first was the death of a young Salvation Army leader, as a heart attack robbed his body of breath, leaving his wife a widow in her 30s, and an infant son without his doting father.
The second loss was that of a heart-breaking milestone, as America’s death toll from COVID-19 reached and surpassed the 500,000 mark. Half a million people, gone. The whole of Ashland County, times 10. To pause at this significant number, the doors of the south portico of the White House were draped with black bunting, and 500 candles flickered in the night air as our president and vice president honored those lost and those grieving.
CHESTER TWP. As Marjorie Gallagher s fingers glide over the ivory keys of her piano, her thoughts drift to her grandmother.
The 100-year-old piano had belonged to Alma L. Taylor and was lost for nearly two decades after a relative donated it to the Salvation Army in Wooster. Gallagher s husband, Michael, tracked down the family piano as a surprise birthday and Christmas gift.
It returned to a Taylor family member last week.
Michael Gallagher decided to find the lost piano after his wife wished in passing she had her grandmother s old Bush and Lane so she could play it again. The piano had traveled from the Wooster Salvation Army to an Ashland residence and then to a home in Stark County s Plain Township.