We
had a nice weekend up in Sharon. We had Sabbath lunch with Simmie and family at
their house, and when Sabbath was over we all headed to synagogue to celebrate
Purim, a festive holiday that commemorates the deliverance of the Jewish people
in the ancient Persian Empire from destruction in the wake of
a plot by Haman, a story recorded in the Biblical Book of
Esther (Megillat Esther). It is customary for children
(and some adults enjoy doing this as well) to dress in costume, and our
grandchildren all enjoy this. Joshua had a big banana costume (I did not slip
on him). Ella and Eliana dressed to match their American Girl Dolls. Eliana matched
her gymnast doll, McKenna, and Ella dressed to match her 60’s doll, Julie,
including a pair of hip-hugger bell bottom jeans (amazing, that’s what they are
selling for little girls these days) and a crocheted hat her Mom made, and I
have to say it was amazing how well she pulled it off and looked like a
miniature version of a very cool girl from the 60’s. Maya dressed as the White
Rabbit from Alice in Wonderland. In all the hoopla I did not manage to get any
good pictures, so I have to see if Dina and Aaron and Simmie and Ronen might
have some I can post. In the evening and again in the morning, the Purim story
is read from the Book of Esther (Megillat
Esther), with appropriate sound effects (cheers and jeers) from the
congregants. It is traditional to exchange gifts of food with friends, and of
course no Jewish holiday is complete without a festive meal. The ten of us
gathered at Dina’s house for a meal that all three families prepared. Barry and
I made an old family favorite called Baked Pasta with Cauliflower and Cheese
from the old (literally, our copy is falling apart) cookbook, New Recipes from
the Moosewood Restaurant. It is an upscale version of macaroni and cheese, with
lots of vegetables (sautéed onions, cauliflower, and tomatoes) and Italian
seasoning. Simmie made a yummy vegetable stew (also from one of the old Moosewood
cookbooks), Dina provided salad and bread, and we raided all the Purim goodies
we had received throughout the day for dessert. A fun time was had by all.
On
Monday morning we headed back to New York and settled back into the house.
After we unpacked, I sat down to watch two DVDs from March of 2012. Last year,
Purim fell on March 8th, the day after my 60th birthday,
and Barry and our daughters and sons-in-law planned and threw a big party for
me up in Sharon. I have to admit that my memory of that evening is a bit fuzzy
at best. The first DVD is a photo montage they had put together to two songs
that I had often sung to Simmie and Dina: Carole King’s Child of Mine, and Rod
Stewart’s Forever Young, with a bit of David Roth’s If You Can’t Fly in the
middle. The second DVD has footage from the 60th birthday party. I
had never seen the video of the party, but I felt that now that I have reached
the one year mark it was time to watch. It was pretty emotional, and somewhat
disconcerting to recognize how little I remembered of the photo montage or of
the wonderful evening which they all worked so hard to plan. Watching the
video, you might not even realize anything was particularly wrong. But I knew
something was, I just had no idea it would be anything quite like what turned
out to be.
Yesterday
I had my music class in the afternoon; I was glad to be able to get back to
that after missing the week before. We studied Mozart’s Symphony #31 in D
Major, sometimes called his “Paris Symphony” because it was written during a
period when he was living in, you guessed it, Paris. Then Barry took me to a
nearby restaurant where I met two Pfizer colleagues for dinner. This was the
first time I have gone out with anyone other than Barry or our daughters in
over a year. It was really wonderful to see them, share family updates, and
hear a bit about how things are going at my old stomping grounds. While I knew
both of them had been reading the blog, I was amazed at how much they actually
remembered all these silly details of my life. I barely remember all the stuff
I have written here, so I hardly expect anyone else to! Every now and then I
sit and read some of the old postings and I am always a bit surprised by them,
a very strange feeling. It’s not that I have forgotten the events themselves,
although the details are often somewhat fuzzy, it’s that I don’t seem to
remember that I wrote about some things. So again and again I would start to
explain something, and one of them would say “Oh, yes, you wrote about that on
the blog.” It was quite flattering and heartwarming to realize that my friends
are devoting this sort of energy to following my journey. I hope that as I
regain strength I will be able to do this more often. For now, like all of my
activities, it still requires a lot of help from Barry. I continue to hope that
I will regain the ability to venture out more on my own. This was an excellent
start, and I am truly grateful beyond words for them taking the time from their
busy schedules to come to the Upper East Side to meet me for dinner.
Tomorrow
I have my therapy session; I’ve been working hard at Lumosity and today I
finally broke through to the next level of Playing Koi! I was shocked – I had
been on the same level for weeks. So I tried one game at the next level, and I
can see already that I may be there for even longer. There are more fish, more
distractors (plants, turtles, and such) and they are all moving more rapidly.
Oh dear. The film tomorrow is Blazing Saddles. I don’t think I have ever
actually seen the entire movie, so this should be good.
My next
appointment for repeat scans and Lisa DeAngelis is next Tuesday. I will
certainly post an update after that!
Meanwhile,
please do continue to keep in touch, and thank you all so much for continuing
to read, which encourages me to continue to write. And that, I believe, is a
good thing for me.
Love,
Rebecca
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