Vern Rolbiecki provides the “Talk” part of Tunes and Talk at Willowpark Residence in New Holstein. At right, a resident enjoys the banter and claps along to the sounds of the accordions.

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school, Geraldine started school, too— only as high school English teacher, not student. And, for the next 23 years, she taught English, directed high school plays, coached forensics, and got involved in the American Field Service program in New Holstein.

Then, in 2000, after retiring from teaching, she met a new friend who ignited a spark that had never completely died out.

“Guess what I’m doing?” said her friend, Mary Ann. “I used to take accordion lessons, and I wanted to see if I could still play.”

And so they shared experiences, Geraldine admitting that she, too, had taken accordion lessons, and she, too, wondered if she could still play.

“Oh, try it,” Mary Ann said. “Try it.” Was it really possible? It had been almost 50 years, after all. But curiosity got the better of Geraldine, so she picked up the instrument that she called Gracie, her old accordion.

“I was amazed at myself,” she said, “at how much was still in my brain and fingers.”

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