I had a lot on my mind this Thanksgiving, since the previous Tuesday Martha Helder had passed away at the age of 92. Many people in Lynden, Washington, where I grew up, probably didn't know "Mrs. Helder," and that's partly due to her unassuming, quiet nature. But she touched the lives of literally hundreds of people by helping them to experience and appreciate the joy of great music as a piano teacher for 52 years. She just never called much attention to herself, preferring instead to shift the conversation towards her students.
As a former student of Mrs. Helder's, I'm grateful to have experienced her demanding standards, although I know that I was less appreciative at the time. I was thrilled if I left my lesson with "vg" (very good) initialed beside my previous assignment. As a freshman music major in college, I was astonished to find that not everyone had been taught to do harmonic analysis of hymns, and that not everyone had been taught hear the difference between major, minor, augmented, and diminished triads. I assumed this was normal for anyone taking piano lessons, but it wasn't. Her teaching went far beyond mere technical training, though; her love for great music and for expressive performance was evident at every lesson.
In 1999, when I received my doctorate degree in music, she wrote me a congratulatory letter in which she said the following: "What a joy and privilege it is to work with young people and help them to realize and experience the beauty and meaning of music!" Although she was speaking of my work at Dordt College, she could just as well have been writing of her own work of many years. She then went on to talk of her current students and how much they meant to her, concluding, "My students are a real blessing to me. I'm thankful for them and the opportunity to share the beauty of music with them." I hope she was aware of what a blessing she was to them, too.
I once heard a sermon in which the pastor, gesturing toward the beautiful stained glass windows, pointed out the various scenes and said that there are everyday saints here with us today, too, as those "through whom we see the light of Christ." So, this Thanksgiving I've been grateful for having been blessed with the privilege of studying with "Saint Martha."
