Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, April 11, 1991 TAG: 9104110652
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-4 EDITION: EVENING
SOURCE: JODY SNIDER/ Landmark News Service
DATELINE: SMITHFIELD LENGTH: Medium
He was.
Gwaltney, blind since birth, was setting his lips to play his trumpet - something that had been a daily routine for more than 60 years until a stroke disabled him last July.
After losing the use of his left hand, with which he held his instrument, Gwaltney said he thought he would never play again.
"It took all the joy in life from me," said Gwaltney, who lives with a sister in Smithfield.
His joy was restored when Elizabeth R. Miller, occupational therapist at Smithfield Physical Therapy Associates, began scouting the area for someone who would rig a device to hold the instrument for him.
"The horn was important to him," Miller said. "It was one of the things he did every day. And it's my job to help him back to what he was doing.
"I said, `There's people out there with adaptive skis, why not do something with music?,"'
Miller found her answer in 62-year-old Pat A. Pencola, a former Smithfield music store owner and instrument repairman.
Pencola said he pondered the idea until one night, when he sat straight up in bed with the idea of rigging something like a microphone stand that would hold Gwaltney's trumpet.
After an eight-month separation, the man and his trumpet were reunited recently in the therapy room.
Gwaltney blew out a slightly rusty rendition of "Love is Beautiful" and "It's a Heartache."
"He just couldn't wait to get his lips to that horn," said Patricia Ray, co-owner of Smithfield Physical Therapy.
"They were fiddling with the adjustments, trying to get it all adjusted for his height, and it was almost like his lips were reaching for that horn."
"You should have seen his face," said Will Blair, a patient at the clinic. "He was as happy as he could be. They asked him after he had played a few songs, if he wanted them to take the instrument away. He said, `No! I'm gonna keep on playing."'
Gwaltney's physical therapist, Nancy Mosley, said: "I couldn't get him to do anything else the rest of the day. I said, `It's time for us to walk.' He said, `I believe I'll just play one more song."'
Gwaltney said he really missed his trumpet.
"I liked to sit by the radio sometimes and see how many pieces I could play by ear," Gwaltney said. "I like Louis Armstrong - `I Want to Be Happy.' You know, `I want to be happy, but I can't be happy till I make someone happy, too."'
Gwaltney, who was born near Ivor, was handed his first instrument, an alto horn, when he was 8 years old and a student at the Virginia State School for the Blind in Hampton.
After several years of playing the alto horn, a brass instrument in between a trumpet and a fluegelhorn in size, he decided to play an instrument that would allow more opportunity for solos.
"I love the sound of the trumpet," he said. "I never thought I'd be playing this long. And then after my stroke, I never thought I'd play again."
"Right after he played," Ray said, "he said he couldn't understand why God let the devil take away his strength and his horn."
by CNB