Late Friday afternoon Roger and Phyllis and I climbed into their van, stopped at the curb to get the box of programs and ACKC inserts out of my car, and went to pick up Melanie and Burke who were coming to the concert. It was almost unendurably humid and thunderstorms were predicted for the evening. Again?

We arrived an hour later, in plenty of time. Lynn and Josie were setting the tables in the back of the room with fruits, vegetables, cheeses, and drinks, and people were already arriving when I realized that I had left the hats and wigs in the trunk of my car, the CDs we were planning on giving away, and the bowl for donations.  On top of that, my binder was missing with our “encore” music in it, and the master program for the venue. All I had with me were programs from Guilford and Philadelphia, the extras that I had put in the box. Richard Ruggero wasn’t the least bit bothered by the fact that the programs didn’t mention Ruggero Piano, but both Brenda and I were bummed about the hat and wig problem and the loss of some of my music. In the end it all worked out. Ruggero has fund raising concerts frequently, so they had a magnificent crystal bowl for donations. Brenda had her wigs and hats, which we shared during the concert, and she certainly had no problem playing the encore, Change Partners, without music. But I didn’t venture my ragtime number without a crutch in front of a large audience of strangers.

Yes, a large audience! Bryan Lewis had driven from Philadelphia with his family, and brought his parents and his uncle, aunt and cousin. John MacKenzie and his beautiful wife were there, Mary and Colin’s son. The Jens and the Lotchins, and a lot of people who attend the once-a-month Friday evening concerts at Ruggero Piano’s Bosendorfer Hall were there. The pianos were so brilliant that Brenda told me later that she thought I was playing loudly. It was an amazing experience. The highest notes “sang.”

Bryan spoke eloquently again about ACKC and our campaign to get kidney cancer higher on the list of priorities as 27 drugs have been discovered through kidney cancer research that have proven effective on OTHER cancers but not kidney cancer. Have I said that before?