Piano player with arthritic fingers

Yesterday I was a visiting preacher and led worship in a church which is not my usual one. The tunes for some of the hymns I had chosen were new to that congregation. There was concern from the person I spoke to when discussing the music as their pianist is over 90 years old and had arthritis in her fingers. I was therefore a little nervous when we started as to how it would go!
But I need not have worried. She was not perfect but she showed signs amidst the occasional shaky bits of the greatly talented musician that she had been. She didn't just thump out the tunes but added delicate twiddly bits to the notes and played with expression to match the emphasis of the verses.
It is good when people are able to use their talents at whatever age and are given an opportunity to be useful rather than being put away in storage because they have had too many birthdays. We saw this when we were at Oxford for the graduation ceremony last weekend. There the dean of degrees for the day from our daughter's college was an emeritus fellow well into her seventies.
I hope that when I get into my advanced years there will still be useful things that I can do. I also hope that my wife or some close friend will tell me when I get to be past it and it is time to put my feet up!

Image courtesy of healingdream / FreeDigitalPhotos.net