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Jan 7, 2010

"Don't be afraid your life will end; be afraid that it will never begin." --Grace Hansen

Life With A Little More Music

Every time 71-year-old Andy Mackie draws a breath, it is music to his ears, whether there's a harmonica there or not. He's just glad to be alive."How are you still sitting here?" asked CBS News correspondent Steve Hartman. "I guess they don't need a harmonica player in heaven yet," Mackie said. Mackie, a Scottish-born retired horse trainer, lives in a camper in Northwest Washington State, even though technically, medically, he should have died a long time ago. After his ninth heart surgery, Mackie's doctors had him on 15 different medicines. But the side effects made his life miserable. So one day he quit taking all 15 and decided to spend his final days doing something he always wanted to do. He used the money he would have spent on prescriptions to give away 300 harmonicas, with lessons. When he didn't die the next month, he bought a few hundred more.