Busy Life of this Author

This has been a very busy time for me --- but that's my life. It seems I get up on a dead run and go to bed on a dead run. Most of us have lives that go in 14 different directions, and I am no different. In addition to being and author and marketing my book, I am a dental hygienist. I graduated from University of Oregon Dental School in 1963. You don't have to do the math! I married a dentist and he brought me to Redmond Oregon in 1964. I am the very first dental hygienist in all of Central Oregon. We started his dental practice in 1964. He passed away in 1968. I had established roots in this area and decided to stay to raise my 2 yr old daughter here. She is still here -- a pharmacist. She's married and had two sons and two step children.

Grandmother's CD Produced and Book Written

It is hard to believe that 12 years from the time I brought those records home, I have a professionally produced CD -- Songs From Grandmother's House and a children's book -- I Can't See, But...I Can Imagine. It truly has been a 'God Thing'. It is though God and my grandmother said, "It is time to do something with this music. Pat's going to do it. We'll make sure she has everything and everyone she needs to get the job done."

In the beginning I couldn't understand the words on the records! I worked an entire year from a tape we made from the original music just trying to understand the words. Truthfully, I don't know why I just didn't give up! One day my cousin, Rodney Sayles from Vermont, called me. His mother was Beulah Sayles, the pianist on the original records. He said, Patty you're going to flip! I found the music! He send me a huge packet full of music! Over 90% of it was there! Beulah had done it! She wrote it down! We had no idea!

From then on, everyone I needed to produce the music just 'showed up' in my life. There have been so many incredible 'coincidences'! Obviously, God has been orchestrating this entire project.

All of the 14 songs on the CD Songs From Grandmother's House are wonderful, but I began to especially notice the 5 children's songs on that CD. I was working with the local songwriter's association at the time and I kept hearing, "The children's songs are wonderful, but there's not much of a market for children's music." I said, "You are wrong! Kids need music, and they don't need what they are getting!" That is when I said to myself, "I have always loved to write. What if I wrote a book? What if I wrapped the book around my grandmother's children's songs? What if I included a CD with the book that went word for word through the story and music! What a package for the kids!" So that is what I did. My book I Can't See, But...I Can Imagine came out December 2003.

To be continued...

Patricia Bennett Wilson, Author

My journey with my blind grandmother's music began in 1948. I was eight years old. She was an awesome music composer. That day, she sat beside me on the piano bench and (with one finger) taught me the song she wrote for me, "Patty's Puppy Pepper". I remembered feeling so loved that day....just to think my grandmother loved me enough to write a song just for me!

Grammie, Persis Beach Bennett, lived in a big house on a hill in Lancaster, New Hampshire. I was born in that state, but grew up in Connecticut. We visited my grandmother often, and each time she would play the piano and sing us the last song she wrote.

As my grandmother advanced in years, she desperately wanted to save the music for her children. Because she was blind, she could not write her music down. When she passed away, her music would be gone forever. In 1949 she traveled to New Jersey with her daughter, Beulah. Beulah was a self taught, but talented pianist. Actually, they made quite a team. They went to a recording studio and recorded 15 of Grammie's songs on 78rpm records.

Grammie passed away when I was 13. I remember asking my father, "Daddy! Whatever will happen with Grammies music?" When my grandmother died, we were living in Southern California. Four years later, we travel to New Hampshire. I worked with my Aunt Beulah trying to get some of my grandmother's music in written form. We did get two of the songs (simple melody and lyrics) written, but it seemed to be such an impossible task at the time to all the music in written form. Already the records were terribly scratched and hard to understand. I remember returning to California in tears, because I felt, in-spite of Grammie's efforts to save her music it would be lost for my generation.

In 1994 I went to New Hampshire and expressed my concern to my cousins. We searched for written music. None. The records were in a cousin's basement. I brought them home to Redmond, Oregon, where I now live. The records were on my lap as I sat in the plane on the way home. I remember thinking......."Pat! This is the dumbest thing you have ever done! What do you think you are going to do with these??" All I knew was that the would be soon thrown away if I didn't do something!