CHARLOTTE, N.C. — A piano at a Charlotte middle school is humming again after its teacher came back from a five-year absence. 

Music director and choir teacher Bryan Long is back at Holy Trinity Catholic Middle School after years of battling severe illness.

“December of 2017, we had a concert, and I had started to become feeling not so well,” Long recalled. “I walked out of that concert and met my brother, we went straight to the hospital that night.”

In, and outside, classroom 232, you can hear the familiar sounds of the piano and the voices of Long’s students. A sound that was missing for five years.

Long’s Fabry disease caught up with him that December, leading to total kidney failure, and emergency dialysis every other day for six hours at a time. In 2019, Long got good news. A friend’s Facebook post inspired someone to test and then agree to donate a kidney.

“I found out there was another person who stepped forward, a complete stranger, I was just amazed. And, I’m still amazed to this day. To think that someone would just — who you don’t even know, would reach out and save your life. Because, she literally saved my life.” Long said.

He and his donor have met and formed a friendship, Long said. He said healthy adults should consider organ donation either in life, or after death. Long added his donor allowed him to keep teaching and form connections with new students, inspiring a passion for music in future generations. 

Now, Long is back doing what he loves, teaching this talented group of young people. His school is glad to have him back too.

“It was very much like somebody was missing from the family. So, we were very glad, very joyful for his return,” Principal Kevin Parks said.

Parks is Long’s former teaching colleague and now runs the school. He said Long’s return, was never in doubt.

“God has a different plan, where we thought it’d be a year, it was a few years. Either way, it worked out for the best,” Parks added.

Long said he is happy to be back sharing his gift and passion with new students. As another class period ended recently, he said he also wanted to give back to a school, which never forgot about him.

“I’m so thankful for Mr. Parks, and all of the community here, the parents and students who prayed for me along the way, and encouraged me along the way. So, I do want to give back to them,” Long said.

It almost didn’t happen. Long had double hip replacement at the end of 2022, a complication of his long sickness. Even that, he said, was not enough to stop the music.

“As long as my body will hold out,” Long said. “And I can do it, I’m going to do it.”