We have received wonderful gifts of love. Recently, Nadine got a wonderful wondeful surprise., She won, and Rachel Bell delivered, the beautiful, huge, worked-on-by-about-a-hundred-people-over-a-year Ashokan "Northern Week" Music and Dance Camp quilt! And an Ashokan teeshirt onto which David Kaynor transcribed the music to a wonderful tune created at Ashokan in her honor, called "March of the Cucumbers", on an Ashokan teeshirt, also signed by lots and lots of people.
It warms me SO MUCH to see my daughter's eyes bright as she feels the love of those around her.
Rachel's arrived on Thursday totally surprised Nadine by delivering them to her (with me in the complicity).
Yay Ashokan! Yay Rachel! What a community!
During Ashokan Week (July 19th through 25th) Nadine was lying on the couch when she smiled wildly and announced she'd gotten an email that she'd won the gorgeous hand-made quilt. She hadn't, of course, bought a raffle ticket -- she wasn't there.. Apparently there was a dedicated "movement" at Ashokan for buying raffle tickets and sticking Nadine's name on them. The email said something like "Remember the gorgeous quilt for raffle>? You won it!!!!"
Shortly afterwards, she had another installment of wild happiness -- someone emailed a video of a group of performers including Jay Ungar, David Kaynor, Rachel, and a bunch of other people, performing a brand new tune called The March of the Cucumbersw at the Ashokan Thursday night concert -- repeated a suitable number of times, it was greeted by a tremendous ruckus from the audience.
Rachel emailed last night that she wanted to come by to deliver the things, and I arranged it as a surprise. At one point I was on the phone in the hospital bathroom to keep Nadine from overhearing me.
Last Thursday afternoon after we came back from the apartment at Alice's music school, we retunred to the house. Nadine had little energy and "set up" on the couch. I kept her company and did some music.
when the doorbell rang, I answered and pretended it was someone else; Rachel arrived with the quilt and teeshirt.
Nadine was just thrilled!!!!! She talked happily, her beautiful face animated.
I'm going to use Rachel's letter to our Ashokan friends, as it says it so well:
"She immediately wrapped up in the quilt and petted it and studied it. Over and over, "I can't believe it. It's so beautiful. I don't know what to say." It's so precious to her, it meant the world to her that so many of you put so much loving work into this work of art. She spent a long time studying the shirt, reading all the signatures and notes. she really was thrilled with it all. laughed at many of the notes people wrote to her on the shirt, especially the fruit references. It was fun to see her smiling as she read each name and talked about so many of her fond memories of Ashokan and of all these people. She loves the tune and greatly admired david kaynor's transcription of it onto the shirt."
Having to miss Ashokan was a hard blow for us, and knowing these people, from different parts of the country, consider her so much a part of their lives is inspiring.
I want to post my pictures of the event, and have to wait until I get the right cord and can use my own computer.
My heartfelt thanks to everyone who has been there for and with us, in every possible way. I am in awe.
___________________________
For those of you who are unfamiliar with Ashokan Fiddle and Dance Camp (Northern Week), it is an amazing week-long music and dance retreat, full of community, music, workshops, classes, jam sessions, food, conversations, beautiful countryside, inspiration, mutual support, and humor. It has been an important part of our lives. It is an important place where Nadine and I found community, inspiration, friendships, and skills.
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