That was the case for Sandra Gangle, 74, of Salem.

“I was a lonely child, and I was somewhat troubled,” she said. “My parents had gone through a separation of their marriage when I was 7½ and there was a lot of conflict, just bad feelings in the family.

“In those days, if you were from a broken home, the whole family suffered.”

When she was 9, she fell in love with the piano at a YWCA summer camp. Her teacher said Gangle would benefit from lessons, but her mother couldn’t afford them, or a piano.

The teacher persisted. She discounted her lessons to $1 a week and tracked down an old upright.