THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, September 16, 1994 TAG: 9409160536
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY PATRICK K. LACKEY, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH LENGTH: Medium: 69 lines
David March has played his violin in airline terminals, doctors' waiting rooms, squash courts, a company cafeteria, stairwells.
This week he's been appearing in Room 105 and neighboring rooms at Virginia Beach General Hospital.
His violin goes wherever he goes, and they are visiting his father, Jim D. March of Virginia Beach, who was hospitalized Monday with a broken hip.
David March, 45, had flown here from his home in Fremont, Calif., for his parents' 53rd wedding anniversary. A fall moved the celebration to Room 105.
On Thursday, after March had played a few songs for his father, an Old Dominion nursing student, Debbie Baldivia, said another patient wanted him to play in her room.
March also played Tuesday and Wednesday, and Baldivia said patients and visitors have gathered in droves in the hallway to listen.
``If I played tuba,'' March told Baldivia, ``they would enjoy it. People are hungry for something to break the routine.''
Two days this week at the hospital he has worn the Renaissance costume he wears when performing at the Novato Renaissance Fair in San Francisco with the Merry Pranksters Dance Company. The costume is comfortable, he said, and patients seem to enjoy it.
He said he sometimes wears the costume to his job with Atari, where he is a computer animator for video games. He uses a computer keyboard and mouse to manipulate a stick figure on a computer screen. Then layers are added to form a realistically moving creature.
Thursday afternoon he followed Baldivia down the hall to the room of Edith White, 84, of Virginia Beach, who had recently broken a hip.
March played the standards: ``Stardust,'' ``Nola,'' ``Nature Boy,'' ``Orange Blossom Special,'' ``The Shadow of Your Smile.''
White's face glowed with appreciation. She kept time tapping fingers against thumb.
``You put your heart in it,'' she said, ``and it comes right out.''
``Smiles make a big difference,'' he said, ``and you have got a nice one.''
``It helps me get over my worries,'' she said. ``This was my mother's way of leaving this world - broken hip, pneumonia.''
March played half a dozen songs. White whispered repeatedly, ``It's so pretty.''
Finally she said, ``I was down in the dumps over breaking my hip, and you have lifted me right out of it.''
He promised to return the next day, but said he'd be flying home Saturday.
She said she would lie there and remember his music.
Later, he said, ``I wish people realized they could carry their flute or harmonica around. It's really wonderful to see people's faces light up.''
When a sailor in the hall thanked him for playing, March said, ``It's a sign of a misspent youth.''
He started playing at age 9. During the 1966-67 school year, he played in the Norfolk Symphony Orchestra while a student at Kellam High School.
He has played for money with all kinds of bands, he said, including rock and bluegrass, but the music seems to go best when he plays for free. ILLUSTRATION: JIM WALKER/Staff
David March plays violin for his father, Jim March, in a hospital
room at Virginia Beach General Hospital. The costume is one David
performs in at San Francisco's Novato Renaissance Fair.
by CNB