They carried the piano in their arms for 27 kilometers so that their mother would die in the magic of the sounds/ The story of 3 sisters

2026-06-20 15:10:00, Opinione Albert Vataj

They carried the piano in their arms for 27 kilometers so that their mother

The legendary story of 3 sisters who carried a piano in their arms for 27 kilometers, so that their mother could die at home in the magic of sounds

October, 1903, Siskiyou Mountains, Oregon.

The family's mother, Ellie Cooper, 61, was dying in a Medford hospital, consumed by tuberculosis. Aware that her days were numbered, she whispered her last wish: "I want to hear my daughters play 'Blessed Assurance' on the piano one more time. But I want to hear it at home."

Their home was about 17 miles away, high in the isolated Applegate Valley. The road there was nothing more than a narrow mule track, no wagon roads, no means of transportation of the time.

Her daughters, May (age 19), Ruth (age 17), and Anne (age 14), had a grand piano in their hospital home, which weighed about 270 kilograms. When the family doctor heard the girls' intention to take the piano to their mountain home, he was told curtly: "It's impossible."

But for the three sisters, the word "impossible" had no weight before the love for their mother and the fulfillment of their last will. This was not an obligation but a mission deeply rooted in faith and love. This indomitable spirit does not recognize, much less accept, impossibility.

They hired two strong mules and hitched the piano to them. But by the third mile, the path became so steep and rocky that the animals were terrified and refused to take even a step forward.

The girls did not turn back. They untied their mules and set off alone towards the city. Then, they took axes, cut eight thin, strong oak logs, and built a kind of wooden stretcher under the giant piano.

Thus began a superhuman march of 27 kilometers, which would last four long days. The girls took turns, two of them carrying the crushing weight on their shoulders, while the third walked ahead with a chisel and axe in hand, clearing the dense bushes and brambles to pave the way.

On the third day, the weather turned cruel. A relentless snowstorm swept across the mountain. With their bodies shivering from cold and exhaustion, the girls found no shelter. They lay down on the frozen ground, sleeping directly under the structure of the piano, which served as a roof against the snow.

On October 29, with bloodied hands and blackened shoulders from the beatings, they arrived at their mountain hut. They brought the piano into the living room. But the long journey and the beatings had completely detuned the instrument. Without any professional tools, with the wisdom of the mountain people, the girls used a simple kitchen knife to adjust and tune the piano's strings, one by one.

On October 30, their mother, Ellie, lying in bed, opened her eyes. The house filled with the warm melody of "Blessed Assurance." She smiled. Two days later, on November 1, she passed away peacefully, surrounded by the music and the immense love of her daughters.

On the day of the funeral, neighbors from all over the valley came to bid him farewell. When they entered the house, they saw the dried mountain mud that had covered the piano's legs and the walls of the room. Yet no one asked how that piano had gotten there. There were sacrifices that needed no words.

Today, legend has it, that piano still sits in the same old cabin, preserved from generation to generation by descendants of the Cooper family, as a living monument to what a child's love for his mother can do.