2021

December 2021

It was a surprise present to find out on Christmas that our youngest daughter, Emily, is expecting another child in July. That will make ten grandchildren for us! It was a special Christmas Day celebration to be all together for the holiday, and to have all our children playing their instruments together and singing carols. It has been especially difficult this December because both Alex and I got sick with Covid pretty bad, and couldn’t do very much for weeks. Now we are slowly getting back on our feet and trying to catch up. Our customer list is growing longer each day, and we now have over 80 harps that need to be made.

One of the main highlights of the year was Alex building special harps for next year’s Sight & Sound’s show, “David,” which he was just able to complete end of November before we got sick with Covid. It’s a special design (unlike a regular harp with a row of single strings). This harp (pictured on right) has strings grouped together in chords (to make it easier for the actors to play while singing). Our son Paul (pictured playing this harp) will be in the show as one of the backup Davids, and was asked to make the music arrangements for the harps in the show, and he will be overseeing the care and maintenance of all the special harps.

Another highlight this year was our son Mark was asked to make a 10-string harp for a series called “The Chosen” (which is an on-line TV series all about the life of Jesus and His disciples). We were able to get it off to them in May, and they were able to use it in the last episode of Season 2. Mark is busy working full time for us making only the26 LAP and 28-Bass LAP Harps. We had such a surge of interest in these harps this summer, that we had to reach out to a local company to do the spray finish for us, and another company that has a CNC machine to cut parts for us.

Joanna & Stephen purchased a “Fixer-upper” home outside of Reading this summer, and have been working at remodeling it for a few months. They just moved in last week (just before Christmas), and we are happy for them to finally have their own place nearby. It’s only about a half hour away from us, so we will look forward to being together with them at their new place on New Year’s Eve.

We have so much to be thankful for this year... family, friends, a good church and a thriving harp business. We look forward to better health in the new year.