Mr. Mike’s Family Notes: Meet The Brunk-Upshaw Family

Great-Grandma Joan with Jenny and August

“In Every Collection There's [a song] I Know”

Meet Jenny Brunk and her grandsons, August and Ellis Upshaw.

Jenny was looking for something for August after his older sister started school. He needed to be around other children. Hill Center was close, and that was enough to walk through the door. They've been coming for three years now.

She has been one of the most consistent families in Deb's class ever since. She wanted to come twice a week almost from the start.

Her word for what happens in our classes is “community”. Community for the caregivers as much as for the kids.

Q. Is there a song that has stayed with you personally?

A. I love The River is Wide and have made it one of my lullabies to sing to the kids.

Q. Do you remember a song your parents or grandparents sang to you when you were small?

A. Many of the Music Together songs were part of my childhood. In every collection there is at least one I know from when I was small. Also, Ms. Deb played The Fox Went Out on a Chilly Night for free-play the other day and my dad sang that to us all the time.

Jenny hadn't mentioned that to Deb. It was just a coincidence. When she got home, she played the recording for her mother. Her mother is 93 years old. She visits twice a year, a month in the spring and a month in the fall, and Ms. Deb has welcomed her to class each time. She sings and plays alongside her great-grandchildren.

Jenny told August and Ellis that she had known that song since she was a child. When I hear the stories of a song making it’s way through generations in a family I get goose bumps. Music creates community horizontally in the moment. When you hear of a song that makes it’s way through the generations of one family it’s hard to describe. There’s an emotional connection being passed down. It changes from a horizontal connection to a vertical connection through generations.

Jenny also told me something that has stuck with me. She doesn't know much about music, she said. I'd push back on that gently. She knows songs. She knows how to sing. What none of us can do alone is sing in a group. That's the part we're here for. Singing is joyful. Singing together is a community. They do many things together: cook, swim, read, play. But music class, she said, is a highlight. It has shown her a part of who August and Ellis are that she wouldn't have seen any other way.

That is what happens when families make music together.

There is a spot in our summer session for your family. Come see what a class is like.