Overcome and in tears I ran up on stage and put my arms around Robby in joy. “I’ve never heard you play like that Robby！ How’d you do it？” Through the microphone Robby explained： “Well Miss Hondorf...remember I told you my mom was sick？ Well actually she had cancer and passed away this morning. And well....she was born deaf so tonight was the first time she ever heard me play. I wanted to make it special.”
There wasn’t a dry eye in the house that evening. As the people from Social Services led Robby from the stage to be placed into foster care， I noticed that even their eyes were red and puffy and I thought to myself how much richer my life had been for taking Robby as my pupil.
No， I’ve never had a protégé but that night I became a protégé...of Robby’s. He was the teacher and I was the pupil for it is he that taught me the meaning of perseverance and love and believing in yourself and maybe even taking a chance in someone and you don’t know why.
This is especially meaningful to me since after serving in Desert Storm Robby was killed in the senseless bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City in April of 1995， where he was reportedly...playing the piano.
在朋友的鼓動下，我寫了這個故事。我叫米德裏·杭多芙，曾是愛荷華州德默尼鎮的一名小學音樂教師，一直通過教鋼琴課來增加一點額外收入，我這樣生活已經30多年了。
這些年來，我發現孩子們的音樂水平和能力各不相同，我從沒因監護某個孩子而感到快樂。盡管也有過一些優秀的學生，不過，我也遇到過一些被我稱做“挑戰音樂”的學生。
羅比就是其中之一。
羅比11歲時，他媽媽（單親媽媽）送他來上第一堂課，我看好孩子（尤其是男孩）在年齡較小時開始學琴，我向羅比說了這種情況。但他說，媽媽一直有個夢想，就是聽他彈鋼琴。於是，羅比就成了我的學生。