(음악) 하모니카 할아버지
(음악) 하모니카 할아버지
Every time 71-year-old Andy Mackie draws a breath. It’s music to his ears whether there's a harmonica there or not. He's just glad to be alive. "How are you still sitting here?" "I guess they don't need a harmonica player. They haven’t yet.” Andy Mackie, a Scottish-born retired horse trainer, lives in this camper in Northwest Washington State, lives here even though technically, medically, he should’ve died long ago. After his ninth heart surgery, Andy's doctors had him on 15 different medicines. But the side effects made life miserable. So one day he quit taking all 15 and decided to spend his final days doing something he always wanted to do.
Andy used the money he would’ve spent on the prescriptions to give away 300 harmonicas with lessons. And when he didn't die the next month, he bought a few hundred more. "I just started going from school to school.” It’s now 11 years and 16,000 harmonicas later. “He taught us a lot.” “He’s very nice.” “Everybody likes him….everybody.”
To keep the kids interested in music as they get older, Andy now spends the bulk대부분 of his social security check making what he calls "strum sticks." He's given away thousands of these, too. He also buys store-made instruments for kids who show a special interest and provides free lessons to everyone by getting the older kids to teach the younger kids. "I tell them music is a gift. You give it away.”
The end result is something truly unique to this corner of America. It seems everywhere you look, everyplace you go, every kid you meet has that same genuine passion for a fiddle바이얼린 현악기 music. "Do you think you're still living today because of the kids and the music?" "I really believe that.”
After that story first aired, one of our viewers gave Andy a $5,000 donation. Andy used the money to hire a part-time teacher. The hope is they'll carry on the mission even after Andy is gone, if Andy is ever gone. Just since we met him, he's survived several more heart attacks, and last week had his tenth successful heart surgery. Steve Hartman, CBS News, Chimacum, Washington.