D.C. firefighter uses bagpipes to offer pause from pandemic

Five nurses in scrubs listened nearby, one lying on her back in the green grass, soaking in the sun. They work at MedStar Montgomery Medical Center in Olney, Maryland, in the intensive care unit - ground zero for hospitals treating patients with covid-19, the disease the novel coronavirus causes.

The break on a Saturday afternoon lasted the length of six songs before the nurses went back inside, back onto the front lines of the coronavirus pandemic, and Jim Mazzara, a District of Columbia, firefighter, headed off to deliver another moment of peace to another group of people in need of a smile.

Mazzara's gesture is a little thing that means everything.

"Just to have somebody during the course of your day say, 'Hey, I see you and I appreciate you,' is a really big boost for everybody," said Kiersten Henry, a senior nurse at the hospital.

It was, Henry said, a moment "to take a breath."

Mazzara is a member of the D.C. fire department's Emerald Society Pipes and Drums, which he joined when he came to the department in 2002. The 47-year-old also drives for Rescue 1, the elite team of firefighters who speed to the most dangerous and daring calls for help.

His off-hour solo bagpipe tours have taken him to Washington's monuments, the U.S. Capitol, Washington National Cathedral and the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception, in addition to hospitals filled with patients struggling on ventilators and caregivers struggling to treat them.

Mazzara took his pipes to the entrance of the Irish Embassy, where a security camera caught only the sound of his "On Raglan Road" and its haunting line from an Irish poem set to music: On a quiet street where old ghosts meet.

"We don't know who you are, friend, but you've given us all a lift," the embassy tweeted.

Firefighters and others quickly posted Mazzara's identity on the Internet, and the fire department has since filled its social media with videos of the largely impromptu performances.

"They're not going to forget about covid-19," Mazzara said of those who pause to listen. "But maybe they're not going to worry about it for five or 10 minutes."

Musicians around the world have found ways to keep sharing their talents, and bagpipers have embraced the movement, tapping into the shrill, mournful sound of their instruments, traditionally played at funerals for police officers and firefighters.

Mazzara got the idea from a friend and former D.C. firefighter, Jim Lee, who is now a lieutenant with New York City Fire Department and lives in an Irish enclave in the Bronx. Lee took the idea from a friend in Ireland.

Lee is a decorated New York firefighter. He earned an award for valor for rescuing an 81-year-old man from a burning five-story building in Manhattan, by holding on to him and lowering them both down a fraying rope from the top floor.

Recently, Lee, stuck inside his house with his wife and three children, took his bagpipes and played "God Bless America" in his driveway. A neighbor recorded it and posted it on social media, and requests poured in.

When the St. Patrick's Day Parade was canceled, Lee made his own parade, walking through his neighborhood playing Irish songs, trailed by his 8-year-old daughter carrying the flag of Ireland.

Lee's performances spread over Facebook and found their way to Mazzara, who took it as a challenge.

"It made people feel good," Mazzara said. "I thought, 'Let's see if we can do that here.' "

He played his first song in his Germantown, Maryland, driveway. Neighbors recorded it and posted to the Internet. Mazzara decided to tour Maryland, D.C. and Virginia. He plays only a few songs, to avoid drawing a crowd, and then moves on.

Many of his performances are unannounced, and most of the people who hear him have no idea who he is until they see him later on Facebook. Spectators have offered him money, so Mazzara set up a fundraising page with donations given to the non-profit World Central Kitchen to help feed those in need.

Mazzara is never sure how people might react. At the Irish Embassy, he noticed an open window suddenly shut. He stopped playing, thinking he had interrupted something. But then the window popped open, wider this time.

"So I played a little longer," Mazzara said.

Henry, 43, the chief advanced-practice clinician at MedStar, is one of those people who saw Mazzara on the Internet. She knew him from years ago, when both were volunteer firefighters in Montgomery County, Maryland. She thought it would be a good idea if he played outside her hospital.

Inside, the staffers in the ICU were coming off a harrowing week treating covid-19 patients, and they knew their battle had only just begun. An expected surge in coronavirus infections had not yet hit.

Henry encouraged her staff to take a quick break. Some came outside; others gathered at windows. It was a moment that mirrored the actions of firefighters in New York, who drive their trucks to hospitals every day at 7 p.m. and clap for the beleaguered doctors and nurses.

For Henry, who was born at the hospital, the tribute is even more meaningful because it came from one man on the front lines honoring others on the front lines.

"Their job is risky every day," Henry said. "We don't usually come to work concerned we are going to be rendered incapacitated on the job. We may not be running into a burning building, but we do now wonder, 'Is today the day we are going to get sick?' "

The day Mazzara played at the hospital turned out to be more uplifting than most.

A patient with covid-19 was showing signs of recovery. And a woman who had given birth during the pandemic was being sent home with a healthy child. She emerged with her baby as Mazzara played "Happy Birthday" on his bagpipes.

"It was powerful," Henry said. "There is good stuff happening in hospitals, too."