Benny: Family Support Story #18

There are certainly some details about this story that I won’t be able to recall, but I will work with what I do remember.

Years ago I got a call from this lovely bubbly and energetic woman about lessons for her son Benny. At that time he was a teenager, but by now he’s most definitely in his mid or late twenties. Their family lived in Metuchen, New Jersey.

I started lessons with Benny shortly after the call, and I just loved the vibe of this family. They were all so sweet and kind, and I took a really fast liking to them. If memory serves me, there was the mom, the dad, Benny, and one or two other siblings, and that was their family unit.

Benny was a big kid.. Like TALL, broad, and built like a football player. In fact, I think he was a football player. He loved classic rock music, and so that’s what we worked on. He picked up the lessons fairly quick, and though he was seemingly shy, he was talkative with me. We had good times working together. I showed him songs and riffs such as “Sweet Child Of Mine”, “Crazy Train”, and several songs off of Green Day’s “American idiot” album.

His family was also very supportive of my band Amber Blues; they bought our cds and merch, and they even said that they’d want to come to our second album release party (which was several months away). They were just so super supportive and openhearted people. Definitely a “music fan” family for sure.

At some point I remember Benny’s mom not looking too well, and that’s when I learned that she was having some very serious health problems, specifically with her kidneys. If I’m not mistaken, she was actually experiencing kidney failure along with several other major health issues. Being that she was such a young mom, I was blown away that she was anything less than healthy, especially given how high energy she always was. It was a sobering realization that this woman might not live very long; that’s when I started to pick up on the more subtle things when I’d see her. She had this amazing light about her, but I could also see that she was potentially losing her battle with what she was facing.

And so it was that one day, I got a call from Benny’s dad that we had to cancel some lessons because the kids mom, his wife, was in the hospital, and the call sounded very serious.

I never found out what happened after that to be honest. I have a feeling that I know how the story ended, but I never saw the family again after what would be our last lesson. We were supposed to meet up, but the family got really quiet, and having a suspicion that tragedy had befallen them, I backed off and didn’t make any pushy attempts to get them reinstated later on. It felt like the proper course of action given the likeness that they were enduring a major family loss.

Months later when the Amber Blues album release was coming up I drove over to Benny’s house and though no one was home, I left a bundle of tickets for the show in their mailbox with a note saying “I hope you are all well, here are some tickets to the show - hope to see you!”, but I didn’t see or hear from them again.

I often wonder about Benny and his family, and I wish them the best wherever they are in their lives.

My Take-Away From The Story

I think the thing that sticks out in my mind the most about this family is their mom. I wish I could remember her name, I really do.. She was a positive, shining, and genuinely happy woman. I can’t begin to imagine the pain of organ failure,.. The amount of suffering that a person may endure going through something like that. But she was ALL smiles,.. Every time. Living life moment to moment and spreading love and positivity as a prerogative. Such a beautiful thing to behold. I remember her talking to me about her health problems a few times, though I don’t really have any details to offer that have stayed with me over the years, but I do absolutely remember her handling her situation with dignity, grace, and her chin up. I recall being very inspired by her, and by the way, the family was keeping it all together during this difficult time.