< BACK

Contact Us

RELEASED JANUARY 2010

By KAYLEIGH KARUTIS
The Leader-Herald

GLOVERSVILLE - Leonard Slawson always wanted to learn to play guitar, but the busy lifestyle of a tractor-trailer driver prevented him from accomplishing his goal.

When he entered Mountain Valley Hospice suffering from a terminal respiratory illness months ago, he figured he would never learn to play. That changed when a guitar was donated to the facility and a musical therapist who volunteers there, Robin Gaiser, began teaching him.

Now, he can strum a few chords and is improving with each lesson, he said, ultimately hoping to learn to play a Hank Williams song.

"I'm still learning. I'm not that good yet," he said Monday from his room at Mountain Valley. "I just never had the time before. I did a lot of traveling."

When he's feeling well and Gaiser is available to teach him, he said, he plays a few times a week. Sometimes, practicing can be tough, but he sticks with it.
"My fingers get sore pretty quick," he said.

Slawson, who is 67, moved to Gloversville about seven years ago to be close to his daughter after decades of driving tractor-trailers across the country. He said he's lived all over the state but slowed down when he reached his 60s. Since moving into Mountain Valley a few months ago, he said, he's become close with several of the staff members and residents at the facility.

Nurse Tonye Grega, who helps care for Slawson, said Slawson is well-liked by everyone in the home. She said the staff and residents are "like family" to him. He was overjoyed when he learned about the guitar donation, she said. "We all went in and brought it to him," she said. "His face lit right up."

Grega said the acoustic guitar, which was donated by Dad's Shop, will be used by the other residents in the facility when Slawson can no longer play. Garry Lane, owner of Dad's Shop, said he felt it was "the least he could do" for Slawson.

"The gentleman needed it. I wanted to keep him happy for the time he has left," Lane said. "Then, someone else there will use it."

Slawson said it's the tone of the guitar that he likes best. He plucked a few strings Monday while sitting in a large easy chair in his room, the rain falling hard against the large window to his left. A small lamp on a book shelf cast a warm yellow glow over a picture of his father in a military uniform.

His daughter, he said, is glad he was finally able to pick up a guitar,
even if it took him 67 years to do it. "She said it's time you found something to settle you down," he said, smiling.