A Story

As the inaugural post to my blog, I thought I'd begin with a story.

It was a brisk fall day at the beginning of October, 2007. I was just shy of 8 months pregnant and getting ready to perform the Schubert Octet with a group of talented and fun amateur musicians. I'd agreed to do this earlier that year when I thought we'd be performing in the summer. Now my due date was fast approaching and I was just glad I'd made it that far.

About half way through the piece things were going very well, I was having fun, the baby was having fun. Then the cellist fell over. He fell towards me and I jumped out of the way still playing, not really understanding what had happened. Seconds later one of the other musicians there for a different piece ran up and began performing CPR. He had no pulse, he wasn't breathing. And we all stood around and watched, thankful that someone there knew what to do. The paramedics arrived shortly. They shocked him a few times, they had the bag over his mouth giving him air, they continued CPR. Eventually he was stable enough to be loaded up onto a stretcher and taken to the hospital. They gave us his watch and his glasses, we packed up his cello and music. In addition to the cellist, everyone was concerned about the baby and the shock of it all potentially sending me into labor. On a day with the potential for life to both begin and end, neither happened.

The group of musicians got together again this week to rehearse a new piece for a new concert. For the first time, the cellist who nearly died and the horn player who saved his life met again. They shook hands. The cellist thanked the horn player. The horn player said no problem and that he hopes he doesn't have to do it again, ha ha, filled in a few of the missing details of what happened. That was it.

Now we have our 5 month old perfect baby girl. The cellist has a new pace maker and is back playing music with us. And life goes on...