Holly Zachariah

The Columbus Dispatch

CLINTONVILLE, Ohio – Taran Tien, who is all of 9 years old, pulled on his best suit. His sister, Calliope, who is 6 and happens to be missing her two front teeth right now, fixed herself up in her party dress.

And off they went, each carrying their cello down the front walk.

Just across the street, Helena Schlam is 78 and, at her children’s insistence, is staying cloistered at home these days when nothing is normal, anxiety is high and everything seems scary.

“An overabundance of caution,” the experts call it, this self-imposed quarantine.

So, Taran and Calliope’s mom, Rebecca Tien, called Schlam to see if she needed groceries. She did not. Still, Tien knew Schlam had a piano in her living room and holds a deep love of classical music. She turned to her children and asked, “How about a concert?”

The kids were thrilled. They added it to the schedule posted on the wall -- right after the research project on YoYo Ma and the outdoor project on biodiversity.

Around noon, they set up their music stands on Schlam’s porch, and they played.

For more than 30 minutes, Taran and Calliope made it through some of Suzuki Book 1 and a bit of Suzuki Book 2. All sorts of things they played, from a Bach minuet to “Go Tell Aunt Rhody.”

“It was so delightful," Schlam said with a laugh. “It was a little cold, but I just put on an extra coat.”

Her porch is large, so everyone could keep a safe distance. She ventured a little closer just once and fiddled with FaceTime on her phone so that her grandchildren in Israel could more clearly see the show.

Rebecca Tien said her own mother is having surgery this week and, because of this new age of coronavirus, Tien can’t be with her.

She leaned on a porch post, watching her kids play with pride and something more.

“It shows we can still have connections right now,” she said, her voice breaking. “I needed that reminder, too.”