When you're alone, and life is making you lonely you can always go ... listen to Larry DeBow play harmonica

Larry DeBow, with his wife, Renee by his side, plays an impromptu concert Friday morning at the McDonald's on Wakefield Street. (Rochester Voice photo)

ROCHESTER - With no power for five days after Monday's storm, we had to put out The Rochester Voice at various wi-fi areas throughout the area.

Some of the hardship in doing this includes not having twin screens and high-speed internet. Instead we had an old laptop and internet speeds that were not quite as fast.

Of course the big thing was not having two screens on which we can usually easily drag and drop various word document or jpg files.

But it's these challenges that make us stronger, and appreciate how good we have it when such obstacles are not before us.

And best of all, we get to meet new and interesting people that we would never have met, like Larry and Renee DeBow, "out on a date" at McDonald's after being married 57 years.

There I was struggling with creating graphics for the newspaper on a single 12-inch screen and I hear this guy wailing on his harmonica and all the folks looking up from their breakfast to enjoy his music and his energy.

At first I was irritated - how can I work in this environment? - and then I realized I was getting a nice little feature story dumped right in my lap.

So I went over and visited with Larry and his lovely wife, Renee.

They're from Sanbornville and have their own prison ministry. Yeah, Larry goes into the various state prisons and jails and tries to reform inmates with his Bible Study class and his music. He also plays the violin.

Larry rattled off one song after another, without batting an eye. "Amazing Grace," "Oh, Susanna," "This old man."

He's been playing harmonica since he was 10, he said, and couldn't even guess how many songs he has memorized. Probably thousands.

He said he's also played for appreciative crowds at Lowe's, Home Depot, nursing homes: "pretty much anywhere," he says.

We say, Rock on, Larry! We needed that boost. And thank you for the morning concert.