HAVERHILL — Dan Belfiore could not refuse one of the last wishes of his mother, who died last year at age 94.
"She said to me, 'Danny, you will continue to come here and play the piano, won't you?'"
"I promised her I'd continue to play," Belfiore recalled.
Indeed, he has fulfilled that promise to his mother, Anna Belfiore, who lived at Hannan Duston Long Term Health Care Center on Monument Street for her last two years.
Anna Belfiore lived on her own for many years at her home on Pilling Street, but as she neared her 90s, she needed more care. Dan Belfiore said their family brought her to several nursing homes to determine which would be appropriate for their mother.
When they brought her to Hannah Duston, her eyes lit up when she saw the grand piano in the reception area.
"I said to myself, 'This is the right one,'" Dan said.
Whenever he visited her, he would play the piano for his mother — and the other residents. He would also try to get his mother to play the piano, to keep her fingers moving.
Dan Belfiore, retired from the Internal Revenue Service, sometimes visits the nursing home twice a week to play for the patients. According to Jeanne Diamontopoulos, activities director, they flock to hear him work his magic on the keyboard. Belfiore has the gift of being able to play by ear, without reading from a sheet of music.
He also plays for small groups of patients as a kind of musical therapy, she said.
Last week, Dan was joined by his brother, Vinny, as they played Christmas songs for the residents.
Dan plays the digital piano their family donated to the nursing home in memory of their mother, while Vinny plays an electronic keyboard.
For some songs, one brother provides harmony, while the other takes care of the melody. With other numbers, they play in unison.
Both Dan and Vinny owe their musical talent to their parents, they said. Anna Belfiore played the piano and taught her children how to use that instrument.
Their father, Rosario Belfiore, who came to the United States from Italy when he was a youngster, played the violin and led a small orchestra.
"We used to fight to get on the piano," said Vinny Belfiore, a retired Methuen firefighter.
Anna Belfiore never lost her sense of musical timing. When her sons played, she would conduct them, they said. The six Belfiore children — Vinny of Methuen; and Dan, Ronald, Paul Grace DeSando and Nancy Crowley, all of Haverhill — visited their mother frequently.
"She was never alone," Vinny Belfiore said.
Most of Rosario and Anna Belfiore's children play at least one instrument. Their gift of music is greatly appreciated by the Hannah Duston residents and staff.
"They're so devoted to us," said Joyce Kissel, who along with her sister Pat Goodrich was at the home last week attending a Christmas party with their mother, Carline Simard, 92.
"They're so unselfish. They're so kind. I can't say enough about them.''
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