#375

I'm on my way to my second dress fitting, and the car starts up with a funny noise...Front driver's side tire is completely flat, all the way down to the rim. Mind you, this is my second flat tire in two months and I'm beyond the point of recommending that tire dealer in the Bronx I bought my tires from. So I'm waiting for AAA to come help me change the flat (and I'm thinking I should be doing this myself...). I call Mom, who's hanging with Grandma down South this week, and Grandma's in the middle of a piano lesson. At 93 she's jamming on an electric keyboard. She never learned to read music but can play - literally - anything and everything by ear, all of which she automatically and magically transposes to the key of C. So Mom puts the phone on speaker and Grandma starts playing "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" - the one song I sing when I'm working really hard to get patients to smile - and she's embellishing it with trills and the like. And all I can think in that moment is how lucky I am. AAA is late so I start replacing the tire myself until one of the nice cardiac care murses (= male nurse) from 7-3400 comes over to help. We fix the tire and again I think how lucky I am. To be 93 and still trying to learn a new skill, to be on your way home but willing to help a colleague in need...