Seattle-Area Families Support Their Neighbors and Spread Kindness During Quarantine
Photo:
Linden Beeman, 11, plays her clarinet while her sister, Acacia, 6, holds a flashlight outside their home in Shoreline. Their neighbor, Edith Farrar, is playing the accordion. Photo credit: Tauryn Beeman
Making joyful noise
At 8 p.m. on March 26, Seattle-ites raised a ruckus outside their front doors to thank hospital staff and first responders. On the Beeman family's street in Shoreline, about half the neighbors turned out to make a joyful noise that evening, including Linden Beeman, a sixth-grader.
Linden, age 11, played her clarinet along with a neighbor on the accordion — from a safe distance, of course. Linden's younger sister, Acacia, age 6, held a flashlight so Linden could see the sheet music. Their neighbor, a retired children’s librarian, went up and down the street with the accordion.
Linden’s been studying the clarinet for two years now, and her mom, Tauryn, gave her the nudge to join the joyful noise outside. “She was definitely shy at first, hesitant. ‘What? No!’” Tauryn said. “Once she heard the neighbors playing, she was like, ‘Oh, I can do that.’ It was definitely because the community was doing it.”
Their street had a running text chain and everyone was encouraged to join the event. Once Linden got going, her mom said she described the experience like this: “It almost felt uplifting.”
