A Sarnia accordion player has found that practicing his instrument beneath the Blue Water Bridge in Point Edward has helped him through his grief.
Dave Woods, 81, started playing his 70-year-old accordion along the waterfront four years ago, not long after his wife passed away.
"Right away people enjoyed it. Some people clapped and they really encouraged me to keep it up and I kept doing it every time I went down. I only missed six or seven days all summer of 2019," he said. "And it picked me up, it gave me a lift, and the fact that people enjoyed it, that helped lift me up too."
Woods said he learned to play the accordion by ear when he was a teenager but had never played in public before. He plans to continue heading down to the waterfront to share his music.
"I had people come and park their cars there and wind the windows down, some of the same people, and listen to me play and they really encouraged me, they really love it. I am getting better than I was and I'm surprising myself."
Woods said a few people have joined him over the years, including a couple with an accordion and a man with a guitar.
"The accordion, you play the melody, and so many people have said 'we haven't heard that for a long time, the accordion, you never hear anybody playing it.'"
Woods, a retired member of UA 663 Plumbers Pipefitters & Welders, said there are days where he really enjoys heading to the waterfront and others where he has to push himself to do it.
With files from Stephanie Chaves
