Revisiting the Scene

It seemed so odd to finally revisit the scene of my accident today. It had been almost 6 weeks. It was time to finally move on.

Until January 20, I had visited my friend Deborah’s house most every week to play music with her. That was the date of my inaugural spill as I missed the last stair. Since then she has brought her cumbersome bass to my house and we have continued to play together.

But it was time to come to terms with those stairs. Her husband was only too kind to meet me at my car because of the few flakes of snow that were falling. After taking off my coat, I stared at the smooth wooden floor where my hip bone had shattered. There was no sign of trauma, no pool of blood. It looked exactly as it always had looked.

I made my ceremonial trip upstairs to use the bathroom. I watched carefully on my way down. My friend Deborah stood at the bottom just to be sure. It will never happen again, that is a fact!

In some ways, it was like picking up where we left off on January 20. We played our beautiful Bottesini concerto and then sight read some other music. We marveled at what an improvement even a little individual practice can make.

I’m glad to restore yet another part of my life as it was before January 20.