After a warm and sunny day’s walk to hear a noon time organ concert in Christ Church, (particularly noted for its historic and highly regarded organ, one of 17 honored instruments owned by the University of Rochester’s Eastman School of music and located on East Ave in Rochester NY,) I decided to walk 1/2 block to Spot Cafe for tea and a sit outside to relax, put my feet up on a chair and read. After a bit, I looked up to see ominous clouds rapidly approaching and quickly gathered up my stuff to head home. Sprinkle-sprinkle-downpour and only 1/2 block underway (for a 17 minute walk home). I got wet but not yet soaked. I joined 3 others in a doorway. We stayed partly dry until the wind picked up. What could we do but chat and laugh and drip. The lovely woman on my right, named Charlotte (she pronounced it just like us Rochestarians pronounce our Lake Ontario beach, with the emphasis on the “lotte.”) She did have a delightful perhaps Asian accent and was protecting a guitar case more than herself. Charlotte is a teacher of kids at risk and en route to her guitar lesson at the Eastman School.
The couple on my left had been sitting inside the Spot Cafe at a table adjacent to where I was perched outside. The four of us were giddy and jovial in our dripping state laughing repeatedly out loud. Then the woman uttered the following, stopping me in my place; “this is the first time I have laughed in a long time. “Oh dear,” I replied, “I am so sad to hear that.” No more was said. The rain slowed to a dripping pace and we said goodbye and went on our individual pathways. I will never know what was in the woman’s heart and mind and it bothers me still. Just sharing another tidbit in time and place.
Video featuring the organ; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fx8uEt6eVbY
Ann Carol Goldberg