Merwin writing:
Last week when the diagnosis of cancer present in my prostate came to us, Bernice took it pretty hard but soon recovered her equanimity. However she was soon stymied in her writing of her blog for she felt that this news could not be suppressed or hidden. The announcement on the blog surprised me as I know it did most of you. Consequently, her readership has been kept in suspense along with us as to the outcome of my follow-up tests. The tests show no signs of any cancer spread. The diagnosis came on last Monday, on Wednesday I had a CT scan, and on Friday a bone scan. The bone scan results were faxed to me as I requested and arrived early Monday morning. I was surprised that the CT scan results had not yet appeared, as the test was two days earlier. I made calls and the inevitable menu selection led me only to a voice mail where I gave both my phone and Fax numbers. I finally managed to speak to a person and was told that I should speak to my doctor. In a barely overheated voice I said that was unacceptable and pointed out that I have a right by law to get my report and I want to speak to one of the radiologists. I also reminded the young man that this was not 1940. He put me on hold and returned to the phone to get my Fax number and immediately sent my report. Now, there will be further treatment decisions to explore but I do not intend to report the minutia of this process.
On Sunday, Bernice and I went to Oyster Bay, a drive of about 20 minutes through wooded acres, to attend a concert in our subscription series of wonderful Baroque concerts. We have enjoyed the pleasure of these concerts for many years. The setting is splendid and the acoustics of the old church are wonderfully compatible with the century’s old music. The Christ Church in Oyster Bay was the family church of Teddy Roosevelt and the family pew is marked and there are plaques on the walls commemorating family members. Sagamore Hill, Roosevelt’s home, now a National Historic Site, is close by. We sat in the last row and brought along a small folding seat friend Laury gave us, so Bernice could keep her legs elevated. This helped greatly and gave Bernice a chance to soak up the music while being somewhat more comfortable.
This concert was devoted to music of the season but the instrumental and vocal pieces dated from the 14th to the 19th century and were international in their origin. Instead of opening directly into the music there was a charming prelude in which each of the four instrumentalists talked about their instruments and gave us a brief sample by playing a few bars. Some of the instruments were hundreds of years old or were modern copies of the ancient ones. There were recorders, flutes, and different percussion types that I had seen before but there were also a kromhorn, citern, vielle, gamba, auto-harp and rauspfeiffe. The members of the group perform widely in the New York area (and internationally) and all of them seem to have the wonderful musical skill and interest to have mastered playing this diverse mix of musical instrument. On the vocal side equally skilled singers treated us: a soprano, a mezzo-soprano, a tenor, and a bass. Listening to the assemblage transported me back centuries.
Some samples of the musical fare: Old French and English from the 14th century, Armeniian, Catalan, Basque, Spanish, and Dutch and even a couple of American traditional.
The day before we had gone to the Met Opera in HD production of Don Carlo, a five hour production which we had to abandon after 3 ½ hours because Bernice became too fatigued. Two consecutive days of outings took their toll and we had to leave our Baroque concert at the midpoint during the intermission. Both of us thought the effort was well worth it.
Good night all,
Merwin
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