Stanford concert
Friday March 23rd 2007, 5:23 pm
Filed under: Non-Knitting


Stanford Hospital holds a concert series in its wide open atrium, and I got an email from Karen Bentley Pollick that she and her friend Dmitriy Cogan would be playing there today, he on the piano and she her violin. Given that she lives on the East Coast now, and that she’s in my book, I–well, I basically moved heaven and earth to be able to go hear her. If you live in the Bay Area, she’ll be playing Sunday as well in San Mateo; details on her kbentley.com website (not to mention access to her exquisite playing).

So I got a chance to show her my galleys with her story in it, which is way more fun than just an email of the story. And I got to show it to her proud mom, visiting from Seattle! Very cool.

Near the end of the concert, my eye doctor suddenly appeared, stopping to watch and listen, leaning on the rail of the floor above us. I caught his eye from way below and smiled hi. Last time I’d been in to see him, he’d told me his mom had taught him to knit, and that he’d done one row. She had never told him what to do next, how to turn the work and continue on, so he didn’t know how and had done just that one row, but–and then he was suddenly shy about being proud of having given it a good try. Hey. I bet it was a great row.

Karen’s old high school buddy was there, and the three women invited me to join them for lunch; quite the honor to be included, and it was my turn for being shy. I thanked them but said I was on my way to go look for some of my old doctors and nurses.

There was one doctor, from last October, that I never did get anything knitted for. It had bugged me. So I went looking, but missed him; he’d been there earlier. I said to the nurses, well, then I’m afraid he doesn’t get to choose a color; generic white it is. We labelled the lace scarf, whom it was for, whom it was from. Dr. B., if you see this, look behind the monitor at the nurses’ station, it’s waiting for you.

And this is what Stanford looks like just outside that atrium. Healing and rest for the eyes, while the music provides healing for the soul. My thanks to every musician who has ever played there. And thank you, Karen, for the heads-up and the invite!


2 Comments so far
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Sounds like a wonderful time! And you look great! 🙂

Comment by Romi 03.24.07 @ 8:20 pm

Thank you, Romi. And oh, I did! Actually, the funny thing is that her friend asked, “Do you want a picture of the two of you?” and I immediately turned around, looking for the pianist, assuming she was talking to Karen about him. Uh, no (duh…)

But oh, if you could have seen her playing! We went to our son’s college concert tonight, where one musician on the stage played her notes quite well but didn’t seem to even be breathing. Stone still except for her fingers. Boy, not Karen! You knew her heart and soul were pouring into that violin as she played. It was a treat to watch.

Comment by AlisonH 03.24.07 @ 11:23 pm



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