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| Samuel Gifford plays a selection on a baby grand piano that he and his wife, Elissa, donated to the Bibliophile Bookshop in Raymond. PHOTO BY BRIANA BIZIER |
It all started with a 500-pound baby grand piano and a phone call. Samuel
Gifford, a member of Raymond’s Select Board, is in the process of moving. Along
the way, Sam was hoping to find a new home for his black Yamaha piano.
“This piano was given to me back in 2005 by my mother-in-law Ethel Coppock Woodbury, my wife’s mother,” Gifford said. “She was actually terminally ill, in bed, when she gave it to me. It was a very sweet moment.”
The piano, Sam’s wife Elissa Gifford explains that it was considered a “recent”
addition to her mother’s life. It was purchased in the 1960s when Ethel and her
family were living in Pennsylvania.
“Right before she passed, my mother was quite concerned about what would happen to her piano,” Elissa said. “Then my husband mentioned that he liked to play the piano, so my mom said ‘well, then it will be yours.’ That’s how it got to Maine.”
Maine is a familiar place for Elissa’s family, who have deep roots in the Raymond
area. Although she was raised in Pennsylvania, Elissa’s family on her father’s
side is from Maine; her great-great grandparents built the first place on
Panther Pond, part of which is still owned by her family.
Sam and Elissa originally wanted to donate their piano to the Raymond schools,
but a quick phone call revealed that neither Raymond Elementary School nor
Jordan-Small Middle School had room for a baby grand piano. Gifford then called
Raymond’s Town Manager Don Willard, who put Sam in touch with Joe Crocker in
the town’s Parks and Recreation Department.
“Like a lot of things in Parks and Rec, if there’s a problem or a donation that no one can figure out, it goes to me,” Crocker said.
He said that Raymond Parks and Recreation would love to have the piano. After
Joe agreed, however, reality set in.
“It turns out you need climate-controlled storage for a piano, you can’t store it on its side, and it’s a whole process to move this thing,” Crocker said. “I was thinking, this is crazy! Oh my gosh, how are we going to do this?”
The eventual solution came thanks to another member of Raymond’s Select Board,
Teresa Sadak.
“Teresa said I should ask the new bookstore in town,” Crocker said. “So I went and asked Jessica Thompson-McCombs, the owner of Raymond’s new Bibliophile Bookshop. We sat down and we talked about Raymond and her journey to the bookstore, and I finally said ‘there’s always an agenda when I come to visit,’” Joe told me, with a laugh. “When I asked her about the piano, she said yes, we’d love that.” Jessica plans to hold children’s piano lessons in her store, and the piano has also already played a starring role in several local musicians’ in-store appearances.
Elissa Gifford said that the sunny and inviting Bibliophile Bookshop feels like
a natural home for her mother’s piano. “We’re pleased to have the piano where
it is,” Elissa said. “My mother loved to read, and she loved to play the piano.
It’s a perfect fit!”
Sam Gifford agrees. “When I first walked in to the Bibliophile, Jessica gave me
a hug,” Sam told me. “She was so happy to have the piano. This store is so warm
and welcoming. We’re very lucky to have this place, and the piano is living
once more. My mother-in-law would be very happy with this.” Donating the piano
to the bookshop is also a perfect fit for Sam, who is himself a published
author of two books that he described as “murders,” with a cheerful laugh.
“They’re really about human growth,” Sam explained, “the growth of an
individual. He grows from a jerk to a fine person.”
Both of Sam’s books are now available for purchase at the Bibliophile, where
they are displayed atop the piano he and Elissa donated. Sam is also planning
on holding a book signing at the Bibliophile Bookshop later this year. He will
not, however, be playing the piano during the signing. “I don’t play publicly,”
Sam said, “because I’m not that good.”
Housing the piano in the Bibliophile Bookshop is a perfect solution for the
Town of Raymond as well.
"Sam and his family are really excited about the piano being in the Raymond community,” Crocker said. "We made a plaque for the piano so it always has a piece of their family attached to it.” The Giffords will also be able to visit their piano even after their move. “We’re moving way far away,” Sam joked as he told me about the home they are building along the Tenny River. Their new home sits on property that Elissa’s father purchased in the 1960s, the same decade he purchased the piano that now lives in the Bibliophile Bookshop.
It’s a happy ending for the piano, the Giffords, the Town of Raymond, the
Bibliophile Bookshop, and Joe Crocker. “I usually can come up with a solution
at some point,” Crocker said, “but I thought this piano donation was the one
thing I wasn’t going to be able to figure out. But, with some help from
community members, we were able to pull it off.”
If you would like to visit the Giffords’ baby grand piano in its new home, the
Bibliophile Bookshop is located in Suite 14 of the Raymond Shopping Center at
1233 Roosevelt Trail. They are open Tuesday through Saturday from 9 a.m. to 6
p.m. and Sunday from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. <
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