Today a guest post is offered from a friend living in the neighboring town of Geneva.  To write is to wait for the apt words to express the journey that one is taking.  Chaucer, whose collection of 24 stories were published in 1483 would have agreed.

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Sunday looking out my backyard windows signs of fall are apparent in the tiny leaves turning yellow and fluttering down from the locust trees.  We finally got some rain and that aided with the leaf display.  Fall is my favorite season because of the colors and the cooler temperatures.  This morning I was Worship Associate for the early service for our guest minister Rev. Turner.  For the Worship Associate it means more readings as the guest in the pulpit only needs to present the sermon.  But as long as I get the script the day before so I can see exactly what is expected, I enjoy being a part of the service.  

How smart of me to note the anticipated damp weather and adjust plans for the Driveway girls.  There is an exceptional local group called The St. Charles Singers who normally present a holiday concert as well as a spring one.  Covid had cancelled practices and performances for months.  This weekend they performed a concert in their usual performance home the Baker Memorial Methodist Church that looks like what we think of when we think of a church….grey stone exterior, exquisite stained glass windows at the front and the back of the sanctuary…a grand space.  The singers were masked as was all of the audience, and their voices were ever so slightly muffled…but the beauty of their harmonies came through and the program had all lyrics printed in the program.  There was a cellist that performed a new piece with choral accompaniment that I loved.  The cellist had composed the music and the lyricist was also there to introduce the piece before the inaugural presentation.  It just felt so good to hear live music and see two friends who sing with the chorus.  Five of us followed up with an early dinner.

What a nice surprise to hear from Susan, my New York City connection.  She always fills me in on life in the big Apple.  Some of her Covid time observations included…few outside visitors…several established stores and restaurants closing….most city dwellers complying with rules of engagement such as showing proof of vaccination and mask wearing where required.  The Metropolitan Opera finally opening after a year and a half with a modern opera by a living composer that was wildly appreciated by the audience. How gutsy to present such a choice instead of a traditional opera for the reopening. Susan feels that “the city” will come back, but it will take a long time.  Oh, and when I shared how much I loved “Dear Evan Hansen”, the movie, her son knows Ben Platt, the star of the film.  Growing up in that part of the country….you just have special access to…everything, including famous people.

Susan did call partly because she is dealing with an inner ear challenge and needs to sit perfectly still until she sees the doctor later today….so calling an old friend gave her something to do.  She also for the second time chastised me for maybe bullying those who receive my weekly writings into sending me a note.  I apologize if it came across that way….maybe I just want to hear what you guys are doing.  Her wise council was…just keep sending and the receivers can delete if they wish.  Still am glad I got lots of notes and I appreciate that.

It was Mamaroneck Junior High when I saw and heard my first opera…a field trip to NY and the Metropolitan Opera to see Aida.  Remember nothing but the fact that we went.

Once settled in St. Charles, I had met a woman named Ellie at my church and in some sort of conversation she mentioned that her daughter sang opera.  What she failed to tell me is that Sondra Radvanovsky was not part of the chorus, but was already a world renowned Verdi soprano….and she was coming to Chicago to sing in El Travatore. George and I decided that we really wanted to see our friend’s gifted daughter.  We were blown away by the power of her voice and I was just learning that opera singers do not use microphones, and their voices have to carry to the tippy top of the last row of the highest balcony in the Lyric Opera’s magnificent theater.  We ended up getting season tickets and attended 5 concerts a year for quite a while.  We were delighted to meet Sondra when her mom had a reception after one opera in a restaurant right in the Opera house and the time she came to our church for a birthday celebration for here mom and when Sondra sang Happy Birthday and about raised the roof off of our Common Room roof.

After George passed, Cindy and I took the train in to hear Sondra sing in “The Three Queens”….selections from three operas she had sung at the Met…about Mary Stuart, Queen Elizabeth 1 and Anne Boleyn.  That was amazing and required she be singing almost every minute on stage.

Now dear Ellie is living in a senior community and unable to see her daughter who is here to sing the part in Macbeth of Lady Macbeth.  Cindy and I went to the Wednesday matinee and trained in with Rachel and her 16 year old daughter who was anxious to see an opera.  It is a dark story, many of you know, and the sets were all in shades of grey and black, but the music was exquisite and Sondra wowed the audience with her performance.

You might not be surprised to know that a conversation came about with a gentleman sitting a seat away from me….obviously a true expert on all things Opera.  When I told him we were there especially to hear Sondra, he almost jumped from his seat sharing that he knew of her and raved about what an exceptional singer she is.  My new friend was visiting from NYC, where he lives and we discover that he was raised on Long Island, just a different suburban direction east of the city, while I am from a northern NYC suburb.  When I mentioned my NY connection Susan and her Love and Quiches business…he of course knew of her company and claimed his mother made a tasty quiche but once she discovered Love and Quiches, never served any more homemade quiches.  He was a very engaging conversationalist.

Cindy had purchased the tickets and she picked my favorite spot….1st balcony, known as the Dress Circle…front row.  She left from the opera to celebrate her birthday with…a new significant other. Rachel, her daughter and I had dinner back in Geneva, close by the train station at a favorite spot.

Thursday was “visit with friends” day….lunch outside, a short park walk and catching up with Lois and then back to Cynthia’s for some one on one time….plus she needed some pumpkin purée for her little dog Bella’s intestinal distress and I picked that up and dropped off for her.

Marguerita directed me to an article from The NY Times about the value of journaling…I haven’t written all these many months for other than I love keeping in touch with people and to get to hear their stories and I enjoy the process of putting my thoughts together. The writing process solidifies random events, times and encounters and I think maybe I know myself better for doing this.

The weather this week reminded me of….some other place.  It is cooler and the day will appear clear and suddenly a rain storm arrives…stays a bit and then moves on.  One is never sure what to bring along; umbrella, rain jacket…which might later be too warm to wear.  At least we got rain, which was badly needed.

Covid #s
US cases…44.2 M.         Deaths…711 K.         Fully Vac…56.6%
World…219 M.               Deaths…4.55 M.       Fully Vac…35.1%

“We still are really in the cave ages in terms of understanding how viruses emerge, how they spread, how they start and stop, why they do what they do,”  Michael Osterholm, an epidemiologist at the U. Of Minn, has told me.

In coming weeks and months, it is possible that the virus will surge again, maybe because of a new variant or because vaccine immunity will wane.  It is also possible that the population has built up enough immunity – from both vaccines and previous infections – that Delta will have been the last major wave.

WE DON’T KNOW, and we do not have to pretend otherwise.”

From:  The New York Times article “The Covid Fable” by David Leonhardt 10/8
Gail