Echoes of the Heart

The charm of music dwells not in the tones, but in the Echoes of our Hearts
Oliver Wendell Holmes

It was in January of 1997 that my friend Terri asked me if I would like to join with a group of women that she was organizing into a singing group. We were going to perform a sesquicentennial (150 years since the first pioneers arrived in the valley) program for a Relief Society birthday party that March. Our pioneer program was beautiful and inspired and after performing it once we were asked by someone else, then another....and the rest is history. Our group (originally known as the Daughters of Denim but then changed to Echoes of the Heart) has been performing on a regular basis for the past 11 1/2 years. Originally we had six singers and an accompianist. In 1998 we added three more singers which gave us three on each part. The Echoes have performed throughout the community for church functions (particularly Relief Society birthday parties and Christmas parties); community events; family parties; company parties; funerals (we once sang at a funeral where President Monson was in attendance, unfortunately I was at work and couldn't go); many times for the DUP (Daughters of the Utah Pioneers) and even the SUP (Sons of the Utah Pioneers); we've traveled to Idaho and to Eastern Utah and we've sung at rest homes and retirement centers. Two of my favorites are our yearly performance at Temple Square and our traditional "Stress Rehearsal" which is a dress rehearsal we perform for our families at the end of November in preparation for our upcoming Christmas season. Through the years some of the faces of the Echoes have changed causing us to say goodbye to an old friend but welcoming a new. The faces are changing again but this time it takes on a new meaning for me because I'm the one saying goodbye. I would just like to share a few memories of my years with the Echoes: weekly practices where we sometimes talked more than we sang; seeing how the seasons of our lives changed as we each experienced changes in our family dynamics (babies, graduations, missionaries, weddings, grandchildren, etc.); sharing in each others joys as well as the awareness of one anothers trials (even those borne silently); feeling the spirit as we sang sacred songs; lovely dinners and nice gifts; having a stranger in the grocery store come up and ask; "did I see you singing in my ward last night? It was beautiful."; costumes; choreography; Mother's Day programs; visits in cars as we drove to performances; quarterly parties and lunches in the effort to visit there and not so much at practice (it didn't work, we still talked at practice); finding an empty room (sometimes a bathroom) where we could pray together before a performance; "Chocolate in my Stocking"; once being introduced as "the Ladies of the Night" by mistake (big mistake). It has been an honor and a privilege to sing with these women; my friends, and to share these memories and many, many more with them. Goodnight ladies!! Love ya, MEAN IT!!