A new piano student at age 93, she sure hasn’t

By ROWENA PLETT

Staff writer

The moral of this story is that it’s never too late to learn new things.

Tillie Schafers will be 93 in September, but she is just now starting to learn piano. Wanda Williams is her teacher.

Tillie has a half-hour lesson every week and has learned to read notes and connect them with keys on the piano.

This new adventure might not have happened if Tillie’s sister Madonna, hadn’t given her a piano when Madonna moved to St. Luke Living Center.

The piano was just inside Tillie’s front door and got her attention every time she entered or left her house.

This summer, she thought, “Why not learn how to play it?”

Wanda was happy to teach her, encouraging Tillie to practice regularly.

“It’s fun,” Tillie said. “She says I have to do a recital, but I don’t want to have a recital. I’m doing this to entertain myself.”

Tillie stays active in other ways. She is an artist, painting pictures and drawing sketches; is involved in exercise class; and regularly tends to potted flowers.

She has a bad back and can’t get out much. Her pastor, Father Isaac Coulter, brings communion to her house, and she gets noon meals from the senior center.

Tillie and her late husband, Tony, moved to Marion after their marriage in 1953. He started Tony’s Plumbing, and she worked as a florist at Conyers’ Flowers, learning a lot of people in the community.

She was a nurse’s aide at St. Luke Hospital for a while and then worked as secretary for the family business.

Tony died three years ago after 65 years of marriage.

“I’m getting along OK,” Tillie said. “I do what I can do and try not to hurt myself. I figure as long as I can use my mind, I can keep it longer.”

She has at least one more item on her bucket list, and that is to learn how to use a computer her family bought for her.

“There were times in my life when I could have died,” she said. “I feel I’m here for a reason, so I better use my time.”

Her grandson, Jason, delivered her election ballot to the courthouse Monday.

“I don’t forget to vote,” she said.