I finished taking apart my old piano today. And I cried while doing so.

The piano is, or was, a 1917 Krehling upright. My grandparents bought it used back in the 1940s. My mom took lessons on it. I took lessons on it. When we moved to Hawaii, my mom wanted the old piano out of her house, so we brought it with us.

Since I moved the piano to Hawaii I have not treated it well. For the first three months it sat outside in a carport. It was covered by a tarp, but that wasn’t very helpful. Then, when we moved from our initial rental to a house of our own, I put it in what was supposed to become my “tiki room,” but which quickly became The Room of Doom. The piano became a catch-all for clutter.

Every few years I would make an effort to clear it off and try to play it. Every few years the tuning was worse. I kept meaning to have it tuned before it deteriorated beyond saving.

Then, about two years ago, I noticed piles of sawdust under it. Big piles. The piano had become infested by termites.

I hoped it was a temporary situation. Sometimes termite colonies don’t survive. But I would move the piano every few months just to check, and every time there was a substantial pile of termite residue on the floor.

I did some reading online this weekend about termites in pianos. Yes, pianos can be fumigated… at a fairly significant cost. Other factors impacting the piano included how badly it was out of tune, rust on some of the strings, and one or two keys which had become non-responsive. At best it would have required hundreds of dollars to maybe get it playable again. Then, if we move, there would be hundreds of dollars in moving costs. Plus, to get the piano into the room, I had to dismantle part of the door frame. That wall has since been painted. Dismantling the door frame is a fairly destructive process.

So I killed my piano. Every part that I could remove with a screwdriver I did. That seemed the most respectful way to proceed. Ultimately, though, I had to use a pry bar and start splitting the glued sections of the cabinet apart. That was the point of no return.

That is when I cried.

I found a colony of termites wriggling around inside the back and top of the cabinet when I split it open.

Now the pieces are on the burn pile.