Archives for March 2020

“I am an arrogant and impatient listener, but in the case of a few composers, a very few, when I hear a work I do not like I am convinced it is my own fault. Verdi is one of those composers.”

Benjamin Britten, contribution to “Verdi—A Symposium” (Opera, Feb. 1951)

Mrs. T’s doctors told me a few minutes ago that she is continuing to make excellent progress recovering from last weekend’s double-lung transplant surgery. She has been fully sedated since then, but the gradual process of bringing her around is about to get under way.

Given the emerging realities of coronavirus and the fact that there are patients at New York-Presbyterian who are being treated for COVID-19, the feeling has been that it would be sensible for me to stay home until Mrs. T is in a more wakeful state. That time, however, may come as early as tomorrow morning. Hence my plan is to head down to the hospital after breakfast (it’s a mile from our apartment) and stand by for further developments. She is intubated and so won’t be able to talk to me yet, but her doctors think there’s a pretty good chance that she will reach a point some time during the day when she is aware of my presence.

I cannot begin to tell you how ready I am for that to happen.

UPDATE: The doctors are most likely going to wait another day or so before starting to bring Mrs. T around from sedation. For the present, I’m content to sit by her bed and look at her.

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For previous reports on Mrs. T’s surgery and subsequent recovery, go here, here, here, and here.

To learn more about her rare illness, go here.

To find out how to become an organ donor, go here.

“Night Club Boom,” a March of Time newsreel about New York nightclubs originally released in 1946. Among the musicians seen performing are Jimmy Dorsey, the Ink Spots, and Eddie Condon’s All Stars, featuring Wild Bill Davison, Brad Gowans, and Dave Tough:

(This is the latest in a series of arts- and history-related videos that appear in this space each Monday, Wednesday, and Friday)

“Do you wish to find out a person’s weak points? Note the failings he has the quickest eye for in others. They may not be the very failings he is himself conscious of; but they will be their next-door neighbors.”

Julius Hare, Guesses at Truth: By Two Brothers

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”

Mrs. T continues to recover smoothly from her double-lung transplant surgery. Her chest cavity, which was deliberately left open after the operation, was washed out and closed up last night, and the doctors at New York-Presbyterian Hospital told me afterward that the procedure was uneventful (as they expected it to be).

As for her new lungs, one of her nurses described them to me as “looking beautiful.” She is still deeply sedated and on a respirator, but the slow process of waking her up will commence at some point in the next day or two, and I hope to be by her side when she opens her eyes and realizes that she is (A) not dead and (B) has a brand-new pair of lungs.

I didn’t go to the hospital yesterday, though: I stayed home and spent several hours on the living-room couch, waiting for a call. As those of you who follow the news closely and are familiar with the geography of upper Manhattan may have already guessed, coronavirus has come to my neighborhood. Not only are two victims being treated at New York-Presbyterian, but Yeshiva University’s uptown campus, which is only a few blocks from the hospital and our apartment house, was closed until further notice when an undergraduate there tested positive for the virus.

I’m not an alarmist, and I’m well aware that any personal risk to me is nugatory. On the other hand, Mrs. T, unlike me, is in the highest possible risk category, and it struck me that under the circumstances, it might well be prudent for me to sit tight and wait just a bit longer before visiting her again. Besides, it’s a good time for me to stay home—I’m completely caught up on my work and have no more shows to see until Wednesday—and I can be at the hospital inside of fifteen minutes should anything unexpected happen.

For the moment, then, my plan is to continue resting up from the accumulated stresses of the past few months—and years. Last night, for instance, I sent out for Thai food and watched a Shirley Temple movie, John Ford’s Wee Willie Winkie. I’ll be seeing Mrs. T soon enough, and welcoming her back to the world.

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For previous reports on Mrs. T’s surgery and subsequent recovery, go here, here, here, and here.

To learn more about her rare illness, go here.