A pleasant phone call from an old friend of mine

A good call from a good friend of mine, M, since the university days. A few years younger than me. We used to hang out in the university orchestra. He was a keen violinist.

We haven't talked for several years. M was a staff of a university. Having suffered from RA, he has retired a few years earlier than the ordinary retirement. With a proper drug for that illness, as he said, he could get along well without any physical handicap or complications. 

He has started taking regular lesson of violin by a teacher and found it worthwhile. He is practising a movement of Ysaye's sonata now, which he has loved for years. It might be a good rehab for his illness as well. His positive attitude toward life has amazed me. 

Being asked if I was still playing cello, I told him I got numbness on the ulnar side of arms when playing it. Hearing what happened to me, he, a neurologist, told me it could be cubital tunnel syndrome, a symptom due to compression to ulnar nerve at the cubital tunnel. It sounded to me quite plausible. Resting or certain med could relieve it, as he said, before considering of surgery. What he said was a relief to me. Since I barely felt that numbness at certain position of elbows which used to cause the symptom after taking rest for a couple of years, I felt I would consult to an orthoped doctor or even to start practising cello by myself.

I have not miss him telling me to do ensemble together again. What a pleasure it must be if I could play some piece with him! When we parted at my graduation from the med school, he gave me a part score of the piano trio of Faure. Will it come true all after such a long hiatus?

This photo was taken at a Christmas party in a women's university sometime in 1970s. I could not recall what piece we have played. M was playing the 2nd violin while the 1st violin was the guy who had whispered to me "The intermezzo of Brahms is mesmerizing, isn't it?" on the way back home from an orchestra rehearsal. It was in the darkness of evening at the women's university campus. The violist was an orchestral member of the women's university. A real fond memory.