{"id":1778,"date":"2017-01-25T20:57:58","date_gmt":"2017-01-25T20:57:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/calirose.com\/wackyworld\/?p=1778"},"modified":"2017-01-25T21:01:06","modified_gmt":"2017-01-25T21:01:06","slug":"a-little-healing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/calirose.com\/wackyworld\/a-little-healing\/","title":{"rendered":"A LITTLE HEALING"},"content":{"rendered":"

I was a sick kid\u2013-as familiar with my hospital room in the pediatrics wing at U.C.L.A. as I was with my own little room at home. Being a teaching hospital, I was frequently\u00a0Exhibit A<\/em>\u00a0as interns and residents and their stern physician instructors made their daily rounds. They\u2019d refer to me by my gender and age and disease. I didn\u2019t appear to have a name. They didn\u2019t know I love to play the piano or sit under big shady trees or that in some perverse way am relieved to be in the hospital and away from the war zone that is home.<\/p>\n

I got swept into the routine of it — everything you can imagine them doing to keep a critically ill kid alive. But you never know when something wonderful will happen. One morning there is a sudden flurry of activity and excitement outside my door. Nurses and other staff are trotting up and down the corridor but not in a \u201cCode Blue\u201d kind of way. They are positively buoyant. Maybe I\u2019m hallucinating because that\u2019s the only way I can explain this level of\u00a0bizarre<\/em>\u2026<\/p>\n

\"\" Until one of the nurses swoops into my room and breathlessly exclaims \u201cBobby Darin is here! \u00a0B-O-B-B-Y \u00a0D-A-R-I-N !!! \u00a0\u00a0He\u2019s here to see the kids.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0Splish-Splash<\/em>,\u00a0Mack The Knife<\/em>,\u00a0Dream Lover<\/em>,\u00a0Beyond The Sea<\/em>. THAT Bobby Darin!<\/p>\n

He\u2019s a BIG star, this guy. And I am a BIG fan. The nurse fluffs up my hair and smooths out the wrinkles in my hospital gown just as HE walks into my room. I can\u2019t freaking believe it. There is no entourage trailing him, taking pictures and commiserating. He leans towards me with that beautiful face. And those eyes. Oh God. And he talks\u2026to me<\/em>. \u201cWould you like a picture and an autograph?\u201d He asks SO sweetly as if he is singing the words. I nod\u00a0yes<\/em>\u00a0because I can\u2019t get my mouth to work. I\u2019m completely undone. It\u2019s Bobby Darin. As he hands me his 8 x 10 glossy\u00a0everything is right with the world.<\/em><\/p>\n

We all have moments in our lives that are seared into our memory, burned into our bones. Little moments that can turn into a monumental shift\u2014like when a teacher says \u201cgood job\u201d or a stranger looks you in the eyes and says \u201cyou\u2019re okay.\u201d And that close encounter with Bobby Darin is one of my\u00a0moments<\/em>.<\/p>\n

He used his celebrity to bring kindness, a little healing<\/em> to ALL the people in pediatrics that day. He didn\u2019t have to do it. His warm presence was not \u201cput-on.\u201d Bobby Darin was a sick kid too. He was visiting \u201ca land\u201d he knew well. He must have known that he was on borrowed time. We all are. He died ten years later.<\/p>\n

Even as a little girl I already knew that music healed me. And during those dark years when I was so ill, if I didn\u2019t have a piano to play I would not have survived. So it\u2019s just been my thing that music, at the very least gives us a second wind and at the deepest, most profound levels, it transforms us.<\/p>\n

Our January Opica Gig with Tom, Barbara, Wena, Mollie, Marilyn, Toni, Nancy, Lou, Raymond, Cris and Rose<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Which brings me to January 2017. My ukulele group, The CC Strummers\u201d has been named \u201cSenior of The Month\u201d by The Culver City Senior Center because we bring\u00a0a little healing<\/em>\u00a0to our community. We regularly play for folks with dementia at a local adult day care center and get them singing and dancing along. Several of our CC Strummers now teach ukulele to nearby middle school students once a week. The kids LOVE it and love them.<\/p>\n

And\u2026<\/p>\n

Our maiden voyage at U.C.L.A. with Raymond, Michael, Rose and Vicki.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Through a series of serendipitous events–one person comes up with an idea that inspires another person to do something and suddenly more people are jumping on the bandwagon–The CC Strummers landed at The Mattel Children\u2019s Hospital at U.C.L.A. playing and donating ukuleles to sick kids on the pediatric wards.<\/p>\n

The story begins with our association with a wonderful organization called\u00a0The Ukulele Kids Club<\/a>\u00a0which donates ukuleles to sick kids in hospitals around the country. Our group quickly collects enough money for five ukes and they ask where we\u2019d like the ukuleles sent. U.C.L.A. is close to Culver City so we begin our collaboration with this respected institution as they build their music therapy program.<\/p>\n

Christmas time with Michael, Marilyn, Toni, Carol, Ann, Jenna (the music therapist) and one happy kid with her new ukulele!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Finally the day arrives when we do our first session: Michael, Rose, Raymond, Vicki and me. We have no idea what to expect as the music therapist leads us from hospital room to room. We sing \u201cHow Much is That Doggie in the Window?\u201d to the little ones and \u201cAll About That Bass\u201d (minus the \u201cbooty booty<\/em>” and \u201cbitch<\/em>\u201d parts) to the bigger ones.<\/p>\n

Singing outside the door to a kid in isolation…<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Some kids are in isolation and we stand outside their door and sing. With others, we gather around them and talk about how much we love the ukulele and show them how to play \u201cRow, Row, Row Your Boat.\u201d We give ukuleles away. The kids can\u2019t believe it. They are over the moon. We give a ukulele to parents who will learn to play a few songs and teach their kids. The sense of gratitude is like an arrow that shoots both ways.<\/p>\n

And here I am, coming full circle, spinning back,\u00a0back<\/em>, in time. Pediatrics is in a different building now than I remember. The long corridors are painted lilac, yellow, sky blue. Each kid has a name and we learn it before we meet them.. I\u2019m doing okay\u2026considering\u2026 But suddenly I am blindsided with emotions that rise from some deep, unknown place inside. Suddenly I am THAT sick kid again, laying in that hospital bed. AND I am a musician standing beside her, sharing a smile and a song. The past, the present are whirling together in some time-bending dance.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a\u00a0Bobby Darin<\/em>\u00a0kind of moment. A little healing. A fierce reminder that we are all on borrowed time.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I was a sick kid\u2013-as familiar with my hospital room in the pediatrics wing at U.C.L.A. as I was with my own little room at home. Being a teaching hospital, I was frequently\u00a0Exhibit A\u00a0as interns and residents and their stern physician instructors made their daily rounds. They\u2019d refer to me by my gender and age and disease. I didn\u2019t appear to have a name. They didn\u2019t know I love to play the piano or sit under big shady trees or … Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","kt_blocks_editor_width":"","_kad_blocks_custom_css":"","_kad_blocks_head_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_body_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_footer_custom_js":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1778","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blogentry"],"taxonomy_info":{"category":[{"value":2,"label":"blog entry"}]},"featured_image_src_large":false,"author_info":{"display_name":"Cali Rose","author_link":"https:\/\/calirose.com\/wackyworld\/author\/crbauthor\/"},"comment_info":15,"category_info":[{"term_id":2,"name":"blog entry","slug":"blogentry","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":2,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":0,"count":138,"filter":"raw","cat_ID":2,"category_count":138,"category_description":"","cat_name":"blog entry","category_nicename":"blogentry","category_parent":0}],"tag_info":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/calirose.com\/wackyworld\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1778","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/calirose.com\/wackyworld\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/calirose.com\/wackyworld\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/calirose.com\/wackyworld\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/calirose.com\/wackyworld\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1778"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/calirose.com\/wackyworld\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1778\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1786,"href":"https:\/\/calirose.com\/wackyworld\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1778\/revisions\/1786"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/calirose.com\/wackyworld\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1778"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/calirose.com\/wackyworld\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1778"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/calirose.com\/wackyworld\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1778"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}