Meet your neighbor: Amanda Cook
Amanda Cook can’t remember a time when music wasn’t a significant part of her life.
“When I was little, three or four times a week, my mom would gather us all around the piano, and we’d sing hymns,” she recalled. “She made them so fun and bouncy and so full of joy that I fell in love with music very early.”
As she got older, she took piano lessons and, now an instructor herself, appreciates her mother for “not letting me quit and give up, as 11-year-olds usually want to do. Music is a huge part of my life, and I owe that to my mom.”
Enjoying a recent afternoon at Big Springs Park in Springville, where she works for Service Star (which offers floor care supplies and services), Cook spoke at length about her love of music, her brother’s band and explained why you’ll never see her without a pair of earrings.
About music: “Music is for the soul. It strengthens the mind. Society doesn’t get that as much as it should. Some people read poetry when they want to feel things expressed in words, but often times we feel things that we don’t know how to express in words or that can’t be conveyed in words. Playing or listening to music can fill that need for expression.”
How it helped her: Cook credits music as one of the things that helped her cope with the emotional strain of an unexpected divorce. “I would walk into a room, and my thought process was so broken that I couldn’t remember why I went there. Eventually I started sitting down at the piano and playing Mozart or Beethoven or Rachmaninoff, and as soon as I’d went through a prelude or a sonata, I’d feel better. It was a reboot for my brain.”
Pyrite Parachute: Her older brother, Donnie Garvich, is keyboardist for the Birmingham-based band. “The most fun I ever have is at their shows,” Cook said. “They are so alive when they’re on stage. They just let loose and have fun.” She attended the group’s first show in Huntsville earlier this month. “Huntsville definitely knows how to get down and enjoy music. It was the best show they’ve played, but I say that after every show.”
Besides piano: “I pick around on guitar, and I would love to play the cello, but I’m going to master the violin before that.”
Amanda Cook style: “Classic. Classics are respected. I respect myself, and I want others to respect me. I don’t want my son to think it’s okay to be disrespectful, so I have to set a good example for him. But that’s not to say I don’t enjoy my ball cap, t-shirt, and blue jeans when they’re appropriate.”
An accessory she’s never without: “A pair of earrings. They make me feel complete and ready to take on the world.”
The best part of being a mom: “I’m the first person he trusts. When he does anything great, I’m the first person he wants to show it to. It’s a God-given blessing. My grandmother always used to say that after motherhood, she would not stoop to be a queen. I never understood that before, but now I agree with her.”
Motherhood’s biggest challenge: “Not being there is the hardest thing for me. Not hearing new phrases when he first says them, not being able to comfort him when he falls, not seeing his reaction to a new food. I’ve missed a whole lot of firsts because of working.”
The best advice she ever received: “There is nothing God puts in your day that you can’t handle without him. Stressing and worrying about something is saying God didn’t know what he was doing when he placed it in your day.”
If stranded on a desert island with one book, song, and meal, her choices would be: “The Bible. It contains so many different books that provide comfort, strength and wisdom. Thistle and Weeds by Munford. The meal would be my mom’s Czech meal, seared pork dumplings. It’s very good comfort food, an absolute mixture of goodness. And I’d have to have apricot dumplings for dessert.”
Something an acquaintance might be surprised to know about her: “I enjoy fast cars. I love to go fast. I also enjoy shooting guns – I guess that comes with living in the country – and going fishing is my favorite pastime. I also love to ballroom dance.”
Her favorite guilty pleasure: “Sitting down in front of the TV with a mindless show, drinking a glass of wine, and eating chocolate. But, having a two-year-old, that doesn’t happen often.”