The Music Between Us: Memoir of a Bedside Musician

by Steve Litwer

Overview

A Man's Heart Is Healed by Playing Music for Dying People

As a young man, Steve Litwer wanted to be a musician. Largely self-taught on the guitar, he lacked the talent to play professionally, so he chose another career path, working for a series of popular music radio stations in Kansas City, Memphis, and Charlotte.

Needing something good to do when he retired, Steve chose to volunteer as a bedside musician, playing guitar for hospice patients. Unexpectedly, his private performances and companionship offered to those nearing the end of their lives began to unlock long-buried memories of his own past.

The result? Surprising lessons and new insights about the events of his life and finding the path to forgiveness for himself and his mother, for whom he had long held resentment. Mentally ill, she had struggled to raise her sons.

Incorporating moving and funny true stories of people in hospice and their love for the popular music that was the soundtrack of their lives, The Music Between Us explores the mysterious ways that Steve was led to reckon with emotional wounds from childhood that had spilled over into many of his key relationships throughout his life and discover fresh joy. It is a celebration both of music and of the power of human connection.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781735527406
Publisher:	One Guitar Place
Publication date:	11/23/2020
Pages:	284
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.60(d)

About the Author

Steve Litwer plays guitar for dying people in hospice care and their families. He grew up in New York and New Jersey and attended Emporia State University and the University of Kansas. He is a retired media sales executive, having spent his career in advertising sales management for radio, broadcast TV, and cable TV. Married to Cynthia Litwer, he is the father of two children and a grandfather. He lives and makes music in the Kansas City metropolitan area. The Music Between Us is his first book.

Table of Contents

CONTENTS

Author's Note

Preface

Introduction

1: The Oldest Rock and Roll Groupie

2: The Woman Who Wasn't Looking for a Husband

3: The After Beats

4: Meatballs with a Side of Music

5: The Unlikely Hippie

6: Messy Rooms

7: On Hearing

8: Whoopee! We're All Gonna Die

9: Eloise and Her Roommate

10: Free Voice Lessons

11: The Graduate and the First Grader

12: Ten-minute Judy

13: Cool Jazz, Jet Setting and Prayer

14: Tuesdays with Owen

15: Until Death Do Us Part

16: The Artist, Entrepreneur, and Hustler

17: Betty Boop Philosophy

18: The Family Who Knew How to Say Goodbye

19: Harold Gives Me a Warning

20: The Man Who Knew Over One Hundred Interesting Celebrities (One Way or Another)

21: Sleepy Gene's Old Time Gospel Hour

22: David and the Two Cooks

23: Grace Notes

24: The Woman Who Knew Things

25: All Blues Ain't Blue

26: "Do you believe in miracles?"

27: Fifteen Pieces of Advice for the Living

28: The Converts

29: The Patient Who Helped Me See

30: The Sisters of Charity

31: "I'm ready and there are those waiting in the wings"

32: The Superiority of One Noodle Over a Guitar

33: A Conversation with My Mother

Epilogue

Acknowledgments

Credits

Resources

About the Author