My Life As Spirit by Radha Botofasina (con’t)

Mary never spoke about her siblings, only her mother. When I gave temporary shelter to a teenage girl, Mary wrote a check for food and other things for the teen. Sometimes, she sent me to other musicians who taught classical piano. I took a couple of lessons but didn’t like it at all. She sent me to sing horn lines with Andy Bey and Blossom Dearie. That was challenging, but it sharpened my ear to sing intervals.

One day, at her house, I met pianist Hilton Ruiz and a woman who was studying with Jaki Byard at the New England Conservatory of Music. We took turns playing Mary’s piano. We didn’t compete. It was a simple, glorious musical conversation. I could barely read music and attempted playing piano for nearly a year. No one made fun of me. They were supportive and I was comfortable playing what I knew. I had nothing to prove and everything to learn.

I continued doing unique things with Mary, visiting her, listening to her stories, and being invited to participate in her adventures. Mary and her manager, Father Peter O’Brien, invited me to Greenwich, Connecticut, for a private soirée, featuring Mary on piano. Mary asked me to dress up as a gypsy and be prepared to give the ladies in attendance psychic readings. I am not a psychic, but I dressed up in an Afghani wedding outfit and rode up to the event with them.

I couldn’t understand why someone of Mary’s stature would take a private event like that. But I knew nothing of the sacrifices one had to make for one’s art. Mary played a few tunes on the piano, then it was my turn to give the psychic readings. I blurted out stream-of-consciousness babel, whatever came to my mind in the moment. One lady wanted to go into a private room because something I had said struck a nerve with her. I only did this because Mary asked me to. It was a hoot and she wanted me to do this purely for entertainment - theirs not mine!