BURNEY: --but my most traumatic um, experience was--I am a musician--and my piano--when they brought my piano out, it was very difficult.
GIBBONS: I’m sorry.
BURNEY: At first, things didn’t bother me, you know, I was just, just glad to get out of the house. But, um, when they brought my piano out, I--I had to cry.
GIBBONS: How long have you played the piano?
BURNEY: Since I was a teenager.
GIBBONS: Mhm.
BURNEY: And I, we had lived in the house for 41 years, so I’d had that piano even before we moved there.
(Pause)
GIBBONS: Have you been able to play during--this time? On another piano?
BURNEY: Yes. My brother, um--passed in August. He was a musician. Um, that’s the first thing he bought me, was a keyboard. He was sick; he called me to his house, and gave me the money. He said, “you go and buy you a keyboard.” And he bought me a keyboard. I play for St. Paul AME Church—
GIBBONS: Oh—
BURNEY: and, um, you know, I needed to practice, so I had a keyboard before I had a bed. (laughs)
GIBBONS: Oh--wow, that’s—
BURNEY: (still laughing) Yeah, he was a musician, well-known musician, so he knew how I felt.
Excerpted from: Ednaearle Burney Oral History Interview. Born-digital recording(s) converted to mp3 format for online access in 2012 from 16bit 44.1khz WAV file archival master recording.
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