Another Gift

Salzburg, Austria

It started slowly at the other rehab. A smile then a hello. Then a short conversation. I noticed that she changed the radio station to classical music. Then the realization that she, as a singer in a chorus at Stanford and I, as a bassist with a major orchestra, performed in several concerts together. We began to talk music, something that I had so missed since leaving the school.

She was a biologist involved in drug research and production when there were very few women in that field. When I was prescribed a new drug, I would ask her about it. I learned a lot about pathways and enzymes and proteins. She was clearly brilliant and it was only years later that I learned she was a Harvard grad.

She was also a fourth-stage breast cancer survivor.

Upon her diagnosis, she totally changed her diet and lost forty pounds. She hunted farmer's markets for fresh vegetables and fruit. She started to exercise. Her routine would begin with stretches, running on the treadmill at the highest grade level available, arm bikes so high in resistance that I couldn't even move it and every weight machine in the gym. Then another set of full stretches. Often she would spend 2-1/2 or 3 hours, five-days a week in the gym.

The cancer has not returned. She has said that she will never have chemo again.

It has been a difficult year for both her and her husband. His brother died and his mother is extremely ill. They have spent a lot of time on the trains between the West Coast and Chicago. But when they are home, they spend their time at concerts throughout the area and long hikes to see wildflowers and birds.

We were best friends even after she left rehab and went to another gym. We e-mailed a lot and meet for tea before my rehab class every few months.

In late January every year, there is a very famous Mozart festival in Salzburg, Austria. She has been going alone for decades, staying at the same hotel each year, renting a rehearsal studio to practice her choral pieces while there and enjoying three to four concerts a day for ten days. Usually, we meet afterwards and go through the program, which is a book as thick as an encyclopedia. We didn't get together this year and we haven't seen each other since last year.

We are meeting for tea this morning.

I try to pay attention to notice all the wonderful things in life that I would never have known had I not contracted my ILD. She is one of those gifts.