MY TEACHER - MY FRIEND

Last week I attended a memorial service for Eileen Hummel. She was my teacher and friend. When I was in college, and a few years after, I took singing lessons from her. I then moved away from the area, but she remained my friend through all these years.

I will miss Mrs. Hummel. She was a very unique lady. An excellent teacher, and she had one of the most beautiful voices I have ever heard. When she sang, you were totally involved in what she was singing about. I remember hearing her sing one time at church, where she sang a gospel song entitled, 'Peace, Wonderful Peace'. It was very simple but when she finished, it seemed like the whole congregation was enveloped in God's peace. She sought to pass that same gift of communication on to her students, and to me in particular. I think I must have been one of her 'pets', because she did so many 'extra' things to help me along with my singing. At times when we didn't have much money, she charged me only half the price of the voice lessons. There was even a period of time when she gave me lessons for free. Most of what I know about singing, I learned from Mrs. Hummel. She was a tough taskmaster though. I remember more than one occasion, leaving my voice lesson in tears. She demanded excellence, and most of the time she got it. Once when I was having difficulty singing a song the way she wanted me to, I said, 'I can't do that'. She immediately said, in a very stern voice, 'Don't you ever say, "I can't" to me, say "I'll try", but never say "I can't" I learned a very important lesson that day, that has stayed with me through the years.
On another occasion, we were discussing a performance by someone at a recital. She told me that once someone had completed their performance, regardless of how unsatisfactory that performance was, there was always at least one good thing that they did, that you could complement them on. That taught me to always try to be an encourager. To this day, I seek to do that.
Because of distances, I was not able to see her much in the last few years, however, we stayed in touch via email. She continued to be so encouraging to me and appreciative of my emails.

When Mrs. Hummel entered a room, you always knew it. She had a way of making her presence known. I think she was following her own advice to me. Once when we were discussing the fact that I was a little shy and retiring, and I had difficulty meeting people, she said, 'The way to overcome that is, when you enter a room with several people that you don't feel real comfortable with, you make the effort to make them feel comfortable. They might be feeling the same way that you are feeling.' Another lesson that I have put into practice many times thru the years.

I think that when Mrs. Hummel arrived at heaven, her arrival didn't have to be announced. She herself let everyone know she was there. And if there is such a thing as heaven needing some livening up, she livened it up with her arrival.

I loved my teacher and friend dearly. She will be sorely missed. In the meantime, we continue putting into practice the many things that we learned from her. We will see her again one day soon, and I believe she is even now probably teaching angels how to sing.We'll see you again, my dear friend. - Judith