GRAND RAPIDS TOWNSHIP, Mich. — Friday at Porter Hills Village, Peter Paolini, 64, played the blues with his harmonica alongside a local blues guitarist. In the audience were his five older siblings, and other family members who had come from throughout the country for "Peterpalooza."
"He would play his harmonica, and we would just jam together," said Peter's music therapist Miranda Eden from Emmanuel Hospice which organized the event. "He talked about how musical his family is, and how much he enjoyed spending time with his family, and he also mentioned how much he loves pizza from Lou Malnati's in Chicago, so I thought, well, we need to make this happen."
With family from as near as Grand Rapids, and as far as Buffalo and Nashville, along with the pizza, came to surprise him for a family jam session.
"It's very moving to me, to see him with the harmonica again, because I haven't seen him with the harmonica in a very long time," said Peter's sister Francine Paolini.
Peter's health complications began back when he was diagnosed with a brain tumor in his 30s. They later learned that his epidermoid tumor would grow back even after being mostly removed.
After his seventh surgery, he moved to Grand Rapids from Charleston and was able to live independently for several years until he began to have grand mal seizures, and needed additional care.
It was in Charleston, however, when he picked up the harmonica and became immersed in the local blues scene.
"It's a musical feeling, and it's all feeling you're playing with," said Peter on his love for the blues. "With your heart and everything. I always like that about it."
Playing along with a local blues guitarist, even with his niece and nephew joining in to sing, it was moving for his family to see that music continues to be a rock for their family, as both parents were also musicians, and all of his siblings and their families having musical talents as well.
"It's all also contributed to a lot of what they call neuroplasticity in Peter, because the music, it crosses both hemispheres of the brain," said Francine. "I think that's what saved him and kept him connected to all of us."
Those present could also not help but see Peter's life as a blues song in itself. Eden said that Peter's songs always end with a light at the end of the tunnel.
"He brings that positive twist to the blues. At the end of the song, there's always that rainbow at the end," said Eden. "Even when we sing a blues song, he always turns it around to, you know, 'nobody knows you when you're down and out, but there's always a way out.'"
Peter and his family said doctors told him many times that he wouldn't be able to reach certain milestones, only to beat the odds.
His family called him "a gift." Francine said that Peter has always been a constant and a glue for their family.
"Nothing is guaranteed, not even the next moment," said Francine. "So make the most of this right now, here who I have in the room with me, and who's standing outside the room, these are my heart, and mostly Peter is at the center of that."
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