EVERETT - As he has nearly every Sunday for the last 17 years, Craig Cummings throws himself into directing choir members at St. Mary Magdalen Church in Everett.
It takes the limited energy he has these days, as he fights melanoma.
Cancer treatments have kept the 59-year-old from working at his full-time job — choir and band teacher at North Middle School in Everett — since January. But his passion for music and God helps him continue as the parish choir director.
“If I only have the energy to do one thing today, I’d rather give that energy to the body of Christ,” Cummings said.
“How he is dealing with this disease is very inspiring,” said Dawn Myers, a longtime choir member. “Every time we sing, he reminds us that we are singing to praise God.”
Passion and calling
For Cummings, music is the essence of what makes life worth living. After six months of pre-med studies at Tacoma’s Pacific Lutheran University, he couldn’t deny his passion and calling, and changed his major to music. “That just thrilled my dad,” also a music teacher, Cummings said.
Although he was raised Methodist, Cummings taught mostly in Catholic schools and parishes throughout the Archdiocese of Seattle. In the late 1980s, he was working at Holy Family School in Auburn. The pastor, Father Patrick Godley, predicted Cummings would someday become Catholic. “He told me, ‘You already are; just let me know when it happens,’ and he was right,” Cummings said.
His wife, Deborah, and their five oldest children became Catholics in 1996. A year later, Cummings joined them. “We realized that Christ’s church after the Reformation was separated and we didn’t want to be separated anymore,” Deborah explained.
From the beginning of their marriage 34 years ago, the couple decided they would share their passion for music with their kids, but if the kids didn’t show interest, so be it.
The kids were interested, and music filled their lives growing up. Today, all seven of the Cummings children are gifted singers, and oldest son Joel has been co-director of the St. Mary Magdalen choir for five years.
Last December was the first time the entire family was able to sing together in the parish choir, since the two youngest — Kristor, 17 and Lark, 15 — now have mature voices. The family is gathering again to sing for Holy Week services at St. Mary Magdalen (only son Steffan will be absent because he’s attending college in California.)
“What our kids have learned about the heart of God is from music; it bonds them to their faith,” Cummings said.
Trouble listening? Head to our SoundCloud stream directly.
Cancer becomes a gift
Last October, Cummings got a phone call that changed his life: he had metastatic melanoma. The news sent “shockwaves through my body,” he recalled. Three weeks later, doctors removed a large tumor below his left jawline.
When Cummings first learned his diagnosis, it was music that came to mind: the lyrics to a song from “The Sound of Music.” But instead of, “‘I must have done something good,’ I thought I must have done something very bad,” Cummings said.
In time, though, he began to feel differently. “I don’t think I have ever felt closer to the entire body of Christ,” Cummings said. His cancer, he believes, is a gift from God to help him fix broken things in his life.
“We all hear the word (cancer) and think that it is the thing. But really it was just a signal of other things that needed to be healed,” Cummings said.
Cancer has improved his relationship with his family and with God, Cummings said. “What he has given me is the peace of not only knowing he is in control, but that at each individual moment I need to be open to grace.”
And walking through cancer together is a way of living out their commitment to a sacramental marriage, Deborah Cummings said. “We are Christ to each other,” she added.
In search of hope
The couple found little hope in the typical survival rates for people with advanced melanoma. So Deborah, a cranial-sacral therapist, immediately started researching alternative cancer treatments that showed more promising outcomes.
Now the couple is working with a naturopathic oncologist, but Craig’s expensive treatment isn’t covered by insurance. The kids thought of doing a dinner and benefit concert, but “they don’t come close to raising the money we needed,” Joel Cummings said. Instead, the family established a donation page to help raise funds.
In a weird way, said Grace Gismervik, another of the Cummings kids, their dad’s cancer has been a good thing. “With seven kids, I have never seen my parents closer,” she said.
As he continues to share his musical gifts during his illness, Cummings has the support and appreciation of his pastor, Father Hans Olson. Cummings “challenges the choir to do beautiful and complicated music that is an asset to our parish liturgies,” Father Olson said, and the choir members “are very loyal and grateful to Craig.”
At a recent Sunday Mass, at the conclusion of the going-forth song, St. Mary Magdalen’s choir members showered well wishes down on Cummings: “We are praying for you.” “We love you, Craig.”
Cummings looked up at them with the hint of a smile. “Life is good,” he said. “God is the best physician.”