SHE CAN PLAY THAT SONG

With One Hand to Her Side

Her e-mail address says it all, “idoomuch.”

This play on Iris (Frey ’78) Doolittle’s name also illustrates her philosophy of life. She is not one to let the world pass her by. The mother of two beautiful girls, Iris teaches piano lessons at her home in Madison, Neb., and plays piano with the Columbus Jazz Orchestra and the High Tops. She is one of the leaders of the adult choir and organist at her church. Her upbeat attitude is contagious.

Iris did not let a stroke she suffered at the young age of 28 paralyze her spirit, even though it restricted use of the right side of her body.

“I’m a lot more laid back now than I was before the stroke,” Iris said. “The important thing now is just waking up every day, getting up out of bed and getting dressed in some manner. The stroke made me think about what was important, and the rest I just let go.”

Friendship, family and music are what Iris prioritized as important.
“When Iris suffered her stroke in May of 1985, I was planning my July wedding, and in spite of a long road to recovery facing her, she was determined to be at my wedding,” said Jeanmarie Nielsen ’78, college roommate and friend. “On July 6, 1985, there she was. Two other lifelong friends, Paula Christensen ’78 and Becky (Masoner ’78) McCain, were there also, and the four of us were never so pleased to be together as we were on that day.”

Iris continued her determined path to recovery. She started teaching piano lessons again less than a year after the stroke. In 1988, Iris and her husband Rodney decided to start a family against the advice of doctors. Laura was born in 1989 and Lonna in 1992.

Music has been a driving force in Iris’s life since she was a little girl, and that love of music did not diminish after the stroke. “Music is just important, always has been, always will be,” she said. “It just seems to lighten the load of every day.

“Music helps everything,” Iris said. “I can still go to the piano and pound when I am angry or to play the latest thing my girls want to hear.”

As a student at Dana, Iris majored in music while being “in almost anything that had choir written on it.” She was as active as a Dana student as she is as an adult, participating in drama, Student Senate, French Club, working in the Dragon’s Head, serving on several committees and teaching piano lessons in the community in addition to her on-campus involvement in music.

The stroke did not change Iris’s love of music or her desire to perform, just the way she does it. Now she seeks out pieces written for or adaptable to the left hand only.

“Iris had always been gifted in playing the piano with fluid expression,” Jeanmarie said. “Now, playing with her left hand only, she still plays with that lovely, lyric fluidity that is her strength and signature sound.”

Iris returned to Dana at Homecoming in October to participate in the Alumni Revue, something she has done each year since the Revue was introduced five years ago. “It gives me something to play for,” Iris said. “It’s always fun to get the applause.”

She performed two pieces on piano, both solely with her left hand.

“I just want to show people that stroke does not have to be something that wipes you off the face of the earth,” Iris said. “You can still do so many things. You just have to think of new ways to do it.”

“Iris is made of faith, the support of and love for her family and a resilient, unshakable self-confidence, and I am honored to call her my friend,” Jeanmarie said.