Hospital Hootenany

Our poor cantor landed in the hospital a few days ago because of an adverse reaction to her most recent chemo. She has been pretty miserable, not the least because she hates being vulnerable.

Today an email came from Honeybee. The cantor had requested that instead of our regular rehearsal we come to her room at the hospital and sing. She requested her favorite 3 pieces of music.

At 8:30 18 of us were jammed into her room. She looked pretty bad, not because it was the first time she hadn’t worn a wig or a hat, but because she was very pale and worn looking (5 days of nausea will do that). She was in a raspberry bathrobe, hooked up to an iv, and to my astonishment she was standing and ready to lead. A direct person, she commented on her head: “As you can see, all my hair is gone. Cancer will do that.” One of the irrepresible tenors demanded of one of the basses “OK, Merv, what’s YOUR excuse?”

By the end, she had color in her face and looked less haggard. She gave us the business–we were going too slowly, we weren’t looking at her as she led, we had to do the song over. When we got a song right, she closed her eyes happily. When we were pretty good, but with some rough spots, she smiled and frowned at the same time, as is her way.

We sang an extra song, a healing song. By that time she was tired, so she sat on her bed. Before the final benediction song, which we sing at the end of each rehearsal, she explained what it was to a couple of nurses who had stopped by to listen.

Then we all wished her good by and good luck and met downstairs in this lounge place where there is a piano that plays by itself, a fake fire, and a waterfall. A couple of the gloomy members hoped that she wouldn’t end up with pneumonia from breathing in all our germs. (But surely the doctor or the nurses gave their ok?) Then Mark told us that the cantor doesn’t have a dvd player at home, and when he had asked her if she had one she had instantly said “no, and Sex and the City would be a good idea!” Like I said, she’s direct. So we are going to get her a DVD player and a subscription to Netflix and hopefully she’ll be willing to sit still and rest for a while.