Becoming Doctors 25 Years Later by Par Bolina

Author:Par Bolina
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Clovercroft Publishing
Published: 2021-05-21T00:00:00+00:00

THE GREATEST GIFT

“The music in my heart I bore, Long after it was heard no more.”

—William Wordsworth

When I was six-and-a-half years old, my mother showed me her three-quarter-size violin that she used to play as a young girl. “I’m so proud that I can give this violin to you, Mary. You will love to play it as much as I did,” she said. I cherished that violin and toted it about in its diminutive case. My parents enrolled me in Suzuki classes at Westminster Choir College in Princeton. Every Saturday, the ritual was to awaken early, tune my instrument, and saw away with the best and brightest of Princeton’s young Suzuki protégés.

My brother and I progressed through the various books of the popular Japanese learning method. We played along to Suzuki records with our mother standing by the record player in our living room.

A photographer from the local newspaper came to the house to photograph our mother–daughter duo, and we made the next day’s paper. It is one of our treasured pictures, both of us beaming with our violins tucked under our chins, facing the camera, I in a long ponytail and white winter outfit, and she, a glamorous young mother with a brilliant smile.

One of my teachers from Westminster used to craft stories about the pieces to connect music to words and impart an inherent sense of the lyrical nature of the music. An enthusiastic listener told me once, “You really make that violin talk.” In high school, I played viola in the Princeton University Orchestra and took lessons there and was principal violist in the Greater Princeton Youth Orchestra. Those experiences, in addition to attending Interlochen, the National Orchestral Institute and New Jersey Governor’s School of Arts, honed my skills and instilled appreciation of classical symphonic works and chamber music.

As a daughter of a doctor and with other family members who were physicians, I told my parents at four years old about my desire to become one as well to help people. They served as medical and professional role models. My father had a home office, and my aunt was one of four pioneering women doctors in her Hahnemann medical school class in the 1950s.

My grandfather used to sing opera accompanied by my violin to a melody called “Toselli’s Serenade.” He performed it with a deep, earnest delivery, full of emotion. He came from Italy as a young man and carried the music of his Italian ancestors in his soul.

A heartbreaking moment was playing Toselli’s serenade for my grandfather as he was dying in his hospital bed, where his final words were “more music.” I felt spiritually connected to my grandfather through music as he transitioned from one world to the next. He was ushered to Heaven with the music he cherished, and this musical memory stays with me always.

Music would accompany me throughout my life and would become an essential component to soothe patients. After seeing the impact music had upon my grandfather’s passing, my mother took me to perform for patients as a candy striper volunteering at the hospital where I was born.

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