Anna Aben Congregations at several Eastern Upper Peninsula churches enjoy the musical talents of a DeTour Village pianist who studied music at the Academy of Music in Krakow, Poland. Anna Aben, known locally for her skills in the musical field, regularly plays for the St. Stanislaus, St. Florence, and Sacred Heart churches, in Goetzville, DeTour Village, and Drummond Island. She also plays for the DeTour Community Choir, directed by Jean Bloom.

Born in Poland along the Russian border, she said her childhood memories include taking extended studies at the Academy of Music in Krakow, near her hometown of Rzeszow, Poland. She took classes at the academy after attending school all day.

As a child, she recalls, she attended school six days a week, and Sunday was spent attending church with her family. She has a brother, Andrew, who still lives in Poland.

After earning a master's degree in music, she came to America at the age of 22 to visit friends in Chicago. With just two suitcases in hand, she decided to stay, and her visit became a complete change in her life. She stayed in the USA, teaching music and playing piano for a church. She lived in an area of Chicago called "little Poland" with a populace of one million people. There, she recalls, the neighborhood catered to people of Polish descent and one could even buy 50 or 60 kinds of a favorite Polish food, kielbasa.

From Chicago, Mrs. Aben moved to Grand Rapids, where she played organ for St. John Vianney Catholic Church. She was a piano teacher for 25 years.

She and her husband moved to DeTour Village in 2006.

Mrs. Aben has returned to Poland to visit three times since she came to America, once in 1992, once in 1999 to visit her mother, after her father had passed, and once in the spring of 2000, after her mother died, to visit the graves of her parents.

Lately, she said, she has been thinking often of the wonderful times she spent at family gatherings, singing and telling stories. Such good memories, she said, that she appreciates even more today, and she thinks fondly of those times.