hear Marja singing and playing.

Northwest Illinois

Harp for Healing

By Clover Smith

About ten years ago, Marja Healy’s mother was diagnosed with Alzheimer's. As a music major, impersonator and writer, Healy became determined to play harp as a means of communication, alternating between frustration, tears and prayer. Insisting she hasn't mastered the harp, her musical talent has been recognized on many levels.

Born and raised in the suburbs of Chicago, Healy followed an entertainment career, working at the corporate level for MGM, Texaco, Kraft, Uncle Ben's, Buick, Dean Foods, USO, Japanese Travel Bureau, Del Webb's Sun City. She's worked at clubs and casinos from the Pump Room, Planet Hollywood, The IMPROV, Paramount Arts Center, Bismarck Theatre, Chicago Historical Society, the Ho-Chunk casino, Hollywood, Empress and Rainbow Casinos. She plays harp in Northwest Illinois for resorts, churches and weddings.

Longing for nature and wildlife, Healy moved to a rural town, raising pet chickens and rescuing a dozen cats and baby mice. She adopted a pair of "defective" doves returned to the store by a wedding couple who said the birds would not fly out of the box. The country atmosphere seems a contributing factor to her writing. Once nominated for a Pushcart Prize, recently she's written a ghost story.

But Marja found her calling appearing with Kathy Mattea for the Aids Foundation of Chicago. Thereafter appearing for the American Heart Association, American Cancer Society, March of Dimes, Grant-A-Wish, Mothers Against Drunk Driving, Infant Welfare Society, St Mary's Children's Crusade, Wildlife in Need, Hospice of Northwest Illinois, Rainbow Children's Grief Program, the Red Cross, and Safe Haven.

Like Mother Teresa, she's dedicated to the sick and dying, giving them comfort, serenity and peace through the delicate sounds of her harp and amazing voice. She takes her music to nursing homes, hospitals or the homes of the ill. Has helped patients cope with chemotherapy treatments or reached into the depths of the comatose to ease the transition of the dying.

She grieves with families and plays wakes and funerals, her angelic harp and voice healing the soul. With the face of an angel, a voice as pure as new fallen snow, Marja Healy's talent and passion create heaven on earth. It can wake the soul, release the spirit, relax, replenish or revitalize-providing comfort and joy to those in need. (article edited for space)

(article reprinted in its entirety in HARPA magazine, Switzerland)

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