By Amanda Thomason October 14, 2021 at 8:26am
Many people who cozy up to public pianos have little business tickling the ivories, but Shawn Foley is absolutely not one of them.
In a heartwarming series of events that has the online world buzzing, health care worker Danielle Herby, who works at Golisano Children’s Hospital of Southwest Florida in Fort Myers, was taking her break at 3:33 a.m. in the HealthPark Medical Center when she heard a mesmerizing sound and had to track it down.
She looked down across the lobby to see an unknown nurse decked out in scrubs and a mask, sitting at the piano and exercising his musical talent while on his break.
Moved by the performance at that quiet hour in the beautiful lobby, Herby shared the magical moment on TikTok — and the video went viral nearly immediately.
“I’m posting more of these, remember to thank your local healthcare workers,” dnherby posted on TikTok on Tuesday.
“I went outside to take a break,” the text on the video reads. “I hear music coming from the atrium.
“I look down and I see my fellow healthcare worker playing this on her 30 at 3:33 am.
“I am BLESSED to have been able to witness this and to have taken my break the same time she did. Thank you for this. I needed this to make my shift much better.”
As of Wednesday morning, the video has been viewed more than 5 million times. The player soon was identified as Foley, whose long hair apparently led Herby to believe it was a woman on the piano.
Foley was surprised to go on social media and see the video of him circulating.
@dnherby I’m posting more of these, remember to thank your local healthcare workers ❤️🎹#ForYouPizza #HealthCare #Piano #Healthcareworker #Covid19 ♬ original sound – Dnherby
“So I went down to the lobby last night to play a little and destress… didn’t know I was being recorded lolll , was going through Instagram stories later in the night and saw myself,” Foley, an emergency department technician at Golisano Children’s Hospital, posted on Facebook on Tuesday afternoon.
He also confirmed in comments on his videos that the song that had gone viral was Michael Bublé’s “Feeling Good” and that he’d played it at the HealthPark main lobby in Fort Myers.
“My son at work on his break… we saw this floating around online!” his mother, Jillian Foley Mullin, posted. “He went viral and not for #parkour… Maybe God wants him to use some of his other talents to become famous.”
The reaction from the general public has been one of awe and emotion, with many freely admitting the performance brought them to tears.
Herby has promised to post more videos of the late-night concerts, and if you want to see more of this talented musician, you can check out her TikTok.
Amanda holds an MA in Rhetoric and TESOL from Cal Poly Pomona. After teaching composition and logic for several years, she’s strayed into writing full-time and especially enjoys animal-related topics.
As of January 2019, Amanda has written over 1,000 stories for The Western Journal but doesn’t really know how. Graduating from California State Polytechnic University with a MA in Rhetoric/Composition and TESOL, she wrote her thesis about metacognitive development and the skill transfer between reading and writing in freshman students.
She has a slew of interests that keep her busy, including trying out new recipes, enjoying nature, discussing ridiculous topics, reading, drawing, people watching, developing curriculum, and writing bios. Sometimes she has red hair, sometimes she has brown hair, sometimes she’s had teal hair.
With a book on productive communication strategies in the works, Amanda is also writing and illustrating some children’s books with her husband, Edward.
Location
Austin, Texas
Languages Spoken
English und ein bißchen Deutsch
Topics of Expertise
Faith, Animals, Cooking