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About Last Night

Terry Teachout on the arts in New York City

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Letter to an unknown family

March 7, 2020 by Terry Teachout

I’ve written an open letter to the family of the anonymous, now-deceased organ donor whose lungs were transplanted into Mrs. T’s chest this week. You’ll find it on the op-ed page of today’s Wall Street Journal. Here’s an excerpt.

*  *  *

My beloved Mrs. T (that’s her nickname) has been in the intensive-care unit of New York-Presbyterian Hospital since December. She got a call there last Saturday night from one of the hospital’s transplant coordinators.

“We think we have a pair of lungs for you.”

We’d dreamed for years of hearing those words….

That’s where you came in. You gave her a priceless gift—the gift of life….

For us, our family and our friends, the news that she had finally found a donor was cause for rejoicing—but I also knew that somewhere in the New York area, another family was mourning the loss of a loved one.

Such is the tragic truth of double-lung and heart transplants: Someone must die to save a stranger’s life.

So I thought about you—and wept.

Because your child or partner or spouse unselfishly chose to be an organ donor, and because you chose to honor his or her wishes, Mrs. T is alive today….

But we know you weren’t that lucky, and so our hearts went out to you in your time of heartbreak….

*  *  *

Read the whole thing here.

The story of Moe Dominguez, a twenty-two-year-old Atlanta organ donor:

Almanac: Emily Dickinson on generosity

March 7, 2020 by Terry Teachout


If I can ease one Life the Aching
Or cool one Pain

Or help one fainting Robin
Unto his Nest again
I shall not live in Vain.

Emily Dickinson, “If I can stop one Heart from breaking”

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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