I was 16 years old and the “Elkington Fiddlers” were born.
I was sitting in church and was 16 years old as a little girl played the violin while her mom accompanied her on the piano. She was 6 year old and she sounded amazing. I had never seen anything like that before. As I sat there I felt as though there were children around me and they were whispering in my ear and singing to my heart, ” We are going to do that mom!” I knew that was my mission in my life for my children. I didn’t know there were going to be 5 of them, but I knew that was what we were going to do. I really didn’t know what it was going to take at the time. But that feeling in church that day kept me going. At times our piano, violin, viola, cello, voice and fiddle lessons were more than our grocery bill! I would practice with the children 2 to 4 hours a day. I would pick up odd jobs, budget and eventually started teaching violin and piano in my home to pay for lessons. One year we had 21 gigs between Thanksgiving and New Years. We went to all kind of parties