My father Gayle Watson, 84, from Grantsville, has been a musician his whole life, played drums in jazz bands for nearly 50 years, and plays the piano by ear. Back in the day, we would play a song for him on the record player and then he would play it for us on the piano. He never used any music.

I marveled at his talent.

Over the years, I could see that certain songs seemed to affect his psyche and could tell he was nearly in a state of nirvana either listening to a song he liked or while playing the piano.

His side of the family seems to have this gift of love for music.

Recently one of our cousins from Salt Lake City came out to Grantsville to film a short documentary on my dad and his experiences in World War II, and the role music has played in his life. The documentary was for her class at the University of Utah.

My cousin Shannalee Otanez, 21, is skilled in producing documentaries. One of her documentaries “Touching Sounds,” about a young deaf boy who was able to hear after an operation, won a national award and was shown at film festivals in Barcelona, New York and Seattle.

Shannalee also loves music and hosts “Saturday’s Breakfast Jam” on KRCL 90.9 FM. Her style is a little different from my dad’s. She likes Van Morrison and Sranti, while my dad is more of a big band, Frank Sinatra, Michael Buble guy.

Life changed dramatically for Shannalee back in January two days after she had presented a documentary at the Sundance Film Festival.

“I was walking to one of my classes on a Tuesday and I had a sore throat and it just kept getting worse,” Shannalee said. “Wednesday night I felt really sick and on Thursday I went to my regular doctor and was tested for strep throat and mono, but it was neither of those. Then, on the weekend, I started getting sicker and sicker with extreme cold chills and my heart seemed like it was racing. I thought, ‘I’m too young to have heart trouble’ and it freaked me out. The next Monday I couldn’t even lay down and muscles around my neck were so sore. My mom and I went to the emergency room at St. Mark’s Hospital and my heart rate was crazy high at 180 and my blood pressure was so low I was in shock. They came to get me for a CT scan and wanted me to take a deep breath but I couldn’t do it. On Wednesday I went in for exploratory surgery and the next few days I don’t remember anything.”

On Thursday, Shannalee was hooked to a ventilator to keep her alive. Her mother, Maryjean, said that on Thursday there was a Code Blue at the hospital and 10 doctors and several nurses came running to the intensive care unit to attend to her daughter.

Doctors were unable to discover the problem, but later diagnosed it as Lemieere’s Syndrome, a rare disease that has affected only about 160 young healthy adults in the United States in the past 100 years. The chances of getting the disease are about the same as getting hit by lightning.

Shannalee spent two-and-a-half weeks in the hospital and more time recovering, but is now feeling better and is back in school. Once doctors knew the malady they were able to treat her with the proper medication. She was told the disease will not return, although it has taken a toll on her health. She said she now has a few scars, which she calls her re-birth marks.

Shannalee credited music with helping her make a recovery.

“When you’re in ICU only two people at a time can visit you so there were plenty of quiet times and it was rough through the late nights,” she said. “The nurses and doctors at St. Mark’s were very good and they wanted to do everything they could to help me fight back. Being the music fanatic that I am, they thought it would be good to bring in my music and some of my recorded shows. I didn’t have my voice and couldn’t speak so that [music and voice recordings] was the way the nurses got to know me. They had music going 24-7. I can’t deal with silence. I have to have my music. Music affects me in a lot of ways and to have it at that critical time helped me through.”

Just like for my dad, music is life for Shannalee. And in this case, it helped save her life.

Mark Watson: mwatson@tooeletranscript.com