GAIL WHITE Singer brings sparkle, tears to eyes of nursing home residents
Evalena Corso of Mineral Ridge feels that she has missed her chance.
"I've been singing since I was 3," she says. But the 66-year-old never sang in front of anyone other than her family until she was 52.
"My dad would come home singing," Evalena said, remembering. "I was doing 'St. Louis Blues' when I was 5."
"I didn't know I was any good," she says. "No one really encouraged me." She says the words with no self-pity but a hint of regret. Evalena realizes the era she grew up in was not one in which women were expected to pursue such goals.
"I was a housewife," she said, smiling. "I did all my singing at home for myself."
Singing at home even stopped when, after 20 years of marriage, Evalena found herself divorced and working full time.
Several years later, while getting ready for a date with a kind, caring man, Evalena was singing to herself once again as she sat in front of her mirror fixing her hair.
"He heard me singing while I was getting ready," she said, recalling. "I would have been so embarrassed if I knew he was listening."
Michael Ruschak decided that night that this woman should be heard.
"If I have anything to do with it, you will sing," Evalena said she remembers Michael tell her.
Karaoke night
He took her an hour away to Hanoverton, a little town in southern Columbiana County. It was karaoke night at a small tavern. Evalena resisted. Michael insisted.
Evalena made her public debut singing Patsy Cline's "Crazy."
She remembers being so nervous her vocal chords barely hit their pitch. Evalena's nerves did not hinder Michael.
"He kept taking me anywhere anyone would let me sing," Evalena said.
After helping her overcome her nervousness, Michael helped Evalena start a band. He procured engagements for the group.
"Did you marry this man?" I asked her, amazed at the support Michael gave her.
"No," she says, becoming very sad and somber. "He broke up with me."
On her own now, Evalena began singing at nursing homes. An organist friend of hers gave her the idea and promised to accompany her.
"There was one right down the street from me," she remembers her first engagement. "I thought, let's try it!"
The success of that first nursing home prompted Evalena to go to others.
One day, while she was singing at a nursing home in Austintown, the nurses wheeled in a man to listen. It was Michael.
"He had Lou Gehrig's disease," Evalena says. "Looking back, I knew he was sick."
Revelation
She believes he broke up with her because he didn't want to burden her with his illness. But the music that he had set free within Evalena brought her back to him.
"He would get a big smile across his entire face," Evalena said, remembering the times she sang at Michael's nursing home. "And then he would weep."
There is a certain sadness in her voice that comes from remembering times past. "He died," she says slowly. "It's been a year now."
Perhaps it is those memories of times past that is Evalena's greatest appeal as she sings at more than 50 nursing homes throughout the Valley.
Listening to her sing at Maplecrest Nursing Home in Struthers last week, I saw the sparkling eyes of the residents as Evalena sang their favorites songs from years gone by. And Evalena completely understands when the sparkle turns to tears.
Putting the microphone up to one resident's mouth, Evalena says with encouragement, "You know this one. Help me out."
She knows how wonderfully freeing a little encouragement can be.
"I love doing this," Evalena says. "I really do."
Watching her perform, something tells me Evalena didn't miss her chance. She is exactly where she is meant to be.
gwhite@vindy.com