My life would be hollow without my wife and family beside me or my faith to lean on. But what else is so instrumental to me that it would be extremely difficult to go without?

I learned the answer during my 10-day hospital stay in 1998. I was suffering from a serious bacterial infection. I was placed in isolation for two days, an IV stuck in my hand to replenish fluids that a high fever had depleted.

My body was exhausted, but my mind was fine-tuned, and began to play entire symphonies and concertos. Beethoven, Brahms, Mendelssohn, Bach, all the classical giants. I didn’t miss a beat and my spirits were restored, all achieved without my trusty tape player.

Funny how the mind responds to illness, striving to bring back the recognizable, the things we hold dear, to cope and to heal.

Cheers to the composers!

© Ron Cooper 2020