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Terry Teachout on the arts in New York City

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We got the Big Call

March 1, 2020 by Terry Teachout

We got the Big Call. The transplant coordinator at New York-Presbyterian Hospital phoned Mrs. T on Saturday night with what is known as a “donor offer.” In plain English, a pair of lungs has finally become available for the double lung transplant that she needs in order to save her life. (For those not in the know, go here to read the 2017 posting in which I told her story.) This is the moment for which the two of us have waited ever since she entered the New York-Presbyterian transplant program nearly eight years ago.

Needless to say, we accepted the offer.

As most of you probably know, Mrs. T has been in New York-Presbyterian’s intensive-care unit since mid-December. I was with her when the call came, after which I returned to our apartment to get some preparatory sleep (we live a mile away). When I awoke, I checked in with the hospital and was advised that this offer, unlike the three previous offers that we’ve received since September, was not a dry run but the real right thing: the lungs proved on inspection to be suitable and have now been “harvested.”

Mrs. T is now on her way to the operating room. As for me, I’ve packed a pillow, an assortment of chargers, and a couple of thick books, my sturdy pocket edition of Trollope’s The Way We Live Now (printed on very thin paper) and both volumes of Tully Potter’s Adolf Busch: The Life of an Honest Musician.

We are, in short, as ready as it’s humanly possible to be.

Please don’t call—I need to keep my cellphone line open. No cards or flowers, either, not until much later on: she knows you care, and so do I. I promise to keep you posted, here and on Twitter and Facebook, though it will likely be quite a while before I have anything new to report. We’ve been told to expect Mrs. T to be on the operating table for eighteen hours or so, after which she will spend two or three days in a drug-induced coma, recovering from the surgery. Beyond that, only time will tell.

For now, thanks for your good wishes. They mean more than you can possibly know.

UPDATE: Mrs. T is in surgery—and somewhere out there, the family of her donor is grieving tonight. What can I possibly tell them? We are grateful beyond belief for the gift they have given us so unselfishly. We vow to use it well—and with love.

* * *

For more recent news about Mrs. T’s condition, go here.

* * *

Bill Evans plays “What Are You Doing the Rest of Your Life?” The song and orchestral arrangement are by Michel Legrand:

Almanac: Stephen King on hope

March 1, 2020 by Terry Teachout

“Remember that hope is a good thing, Red, maybe the best of things, and no good thing ever dies.”

Stephen King, “Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption” (from Different Seasons)

Terry Teachout

Terry Teachout, who writes this blog, is the drama critic of The Wall Street Journal and the critic-at-large of Commentary. In addition to his Wall Street Journal drama column and his monthly essays … [Read More...]

About

About “About Last Night”

This is a blog about the arts in New York City and the rest of America, written by Terry Teachout. Terry is a critic, biographer, playwright, director, librettist, recovering musician, and inveterate blogger. In addition to theater, he writes here and elsewhere about all of the other arts--books, … [Read More...]

About My Plays and Opera Libretti

Billy and Me, my second play, received its world premiere on December 8, 2017, at Palm Beach Dramaworks in West Palm Beach, Fla. Satchmo at the Waldorf, my first play, closed off Broadway at the Westside Theatre on June 29, 2014, after 18 previews and 136 performances. That production was directed … [Read More...]

About My Podcast

Peter Marks, Elisabeth Vincentelli, and I are the panelists on “Three on the Aisle,” a bimonthly podcast from New York about theater in America. … [Read More...]

About My Books

My latest book is Duke: A Life of Duke Ellington, published in 2013 by Gotham Books in the U.S. and the Robson Press in England and now available in paperback. I have also written biographies of Louis Armstrong, George Balanchine, and H.L. Mencken, as well as a volume of my collected essays called A … [Read More...]

The Long Goodbye

To read all three installments of "The Long Goodbye," a multi-part posting about the experience of watching a parent die, go here. … [Read More...]

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