Ping - Snap Classic

A young woman wakes up in her Beijing dorm room to a call. A strange voice, a man she barely remembers, is asking her a question that will change her destiny. And a doctor hears one of her classical music idols play one of the greatest serenades of all time. STORIES Ping A young woman wakes up in her Beijing dorm room to a call. A strange voice, a man she barely remembers, is asking her a question that will change her destiny. Thank you, Wang Ping, for sharing your story with us! Wang Ping is a poet, writer, photographer, performance and multimedia artist. Want to learn more about her? Check out her website. http://www.wangping.com/about/about.html Produced by Annie Nguyen, original score by Daniel Riera, artwork by Teo Ducot. “Dying to Tchaikovsky” Family medicine physician Catherine Sonquist Forest listens to one of her classical music idols serenade a dying loved one in the hospital. This story https://thenocturnists.com/season-2/2019/4/29/s2-e6-dying-to-tchaikovsky came to us fromThe Nocturnists https://thenocturnists.com/ podcast, it was told by Catherine Forest, MD. The Nocturnists are a vibrant community of healthcare workers who are celebrating their humanity through storytelling. They have live performances, a podcast, and so much more. Listen & subscribe now! Hosted by Emily Silverman https://www.emilysilverman.com/. Produced by Emily Silverman and Marina Poole https://marina-poole.format.com/. Story Development by Adelaide Papazoglou. Sound Engineering by Alberto Hernandez https://www.albertohernandezaudio.com/. Assistant Producing by Kirk Klocke https://www.citizenkirk.com/. Original theme music by Yosef Munro https://munro.media/, additional music by Blue Dot Sessions https://www.sessions.blue/. Snap Classic - Season 16 – Episode 19 Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices https://dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:08Glynn Washington?

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• 0:53Glynn Washington?

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• 1:37Glynn Washington?

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• 2:11Glynn Washington?

  In order to just maintain, to live my life, I have to kind of trick myself with a series of choices. Red jacket or gray jacket? Oatmeal or toast, just to get the blood flowing? And yeah, some of the choices get harder. Is today the day you tear the band-aid off that conversation you do not want to have? Or not? Pay this overdue bill? Or that overdue bill? And when I'm trying to trick myself, framing is everything. Is your lazy behind gonna get to the gym? Or not? Hey, I'm not lazy. Then go to the gym. Do you love your mother?

• 2:56Glynn Washington?

  Of course, I love my mama. Then call her. And I know full well that this is a simplification. A game. That my universe of what to do at any given moment is not binary. It's infinite. But engaging this game feels safer. Feels more comforting, far less bewildering than the fact that I don't have to play.

• 3:33Glynn Washington?

  Today, on Snap Judgment, we proudly present "Pain."

• 3:42Glynn Washington?

  A story about one woman who chooses to play a different game altogether. My name is Glynn Washington, and you've made the best choice of all by listening.

• 3:55Glynn Washington?

  Snap Judgment.

• 4:18Glynn Washington?

  Snappers. What happens when dreams come true? Since she was but five years old, Ping knew she wanted to go to college. But in China, the Cultural Revolution began. So books were burned, schools were shut down, and Ping wouldn't have it. She educated herself in underground book clubs from third grade till high school, all for the biggest out-of-reach dream: college. But Ping surprised herself. She not only got into college, she got into Beijing University, the Harvard of China. And Ping continued to dream. She wanted to be a Polish professor in poetry and creative writing, and she kept her head down in school and just a week shy of graduating.

• 5:04Glynn Washington?

  Someone else had other dreams for Ping.

• 5:10Glynn Washington?

  Snap judgment.

• 5:27Speaker 01

  Beijing University was like the best university in China. And it was like a miracle for me to get in. And I really didn't want to waste any minute to date any man, right? And I never dated any man, you know? So of course, I knew I wanted the kids, but I never imagined my future husband. And then suddenly, my husband dropped from the sky.

• 6:00Speaker 01

  A week before I actually graduated from Beijing University, I was sleeping soundly and then suddenly

• 6:12Speaker 01

  the concierge lady just pounded on my door to say, "Wang Ping, get up and answer the phone." There was only one phone in the entire building. That was for hundreds of girls. I was sleeping on the upper bunk bed, so I just came down, stumbled toward the door into the concierge lady's room.

• 6:39Speaker 01

  She got into her room, which is also her bedroom, and opened the iron, like, little window, which is locked usually, and the phone was locked inside her room on her desk. So I reached in and got my phone and I said, "Hello."

• 6:57Speaker 01

  Then I heard his voice. And he said, "I'm Cheng Wenlong. You remember me, right? I'm your classmate from Hangzhou Foreign Language School." So I didn't know him much, you know, except I had this image of this very naughty boy, lazy boy, a goofy boy. He's also very handsome. And then he said, "I wrote to you like four years ago when you just got into Beijing University. I wanted to be your boyfriend." And he said, "You asked me to wait until you graduated." And I said, "Huh?" I barely remembered what he wrote.

• 7:42Speaker 01

  And he said, "Ping, what are you about to me?" I said, "What?"

• 7:50Speaker 01

  And he said, "I'm coming to China. I'm coming back to China to marry you. And just wait for me." Then he just hung up on the phone.

• 8:02Speaker 01

  And I put down the phone and walked back like in a daze. I was still half asleep. I have no idea what just had happened. So I didn't, I just forget about it.

• 8:18Speaker 01

  I had one day before I graduated. You know, I was reading a book.

• 8:24Speaker 01

  And all the girls were laughing, telling each other stories. And I was just lying on my top bunk bed and reading a book. And then someone just said, "Hey, Ping, you got someone looking for you." And my god, I couldn't believe my eyes. This is the guy from six years ago, from Hangzhou Foreign Language School.

• 8:53Speaker 01

  And still very, very, more handsome, actually. You know, wearing the jeans, which is very fashionable in Beijing at that time. So to see someone wearing those jeans is quite the, like, most fashionable thing.

• 9:10Speaker 01

  I tried not to be too excited, but I almost fell off my bunk bed, you know, coming down. And I said, "Oh, you're here." He said, "Yes, I'm here. Let's go get married." I said, "What?" He said, "I've loved you all these years, since the first time I laid my eyes on you. I wanted to marry you. But you have been ignoring me all these years. I waited all these years. You didn't know that, right?" I said, "No, I did not know." Because I overheard you guys rate my looks.

• 9:51Speaker 01

  And you called me just B and B minus. So why should I pay any attention, you know, right? And I know I'm ugly girl. I grew up being called ugly girl. So I don't care. So I just want to be a good student. So why you come all the way from Germany to marry me?" And he said, "Well, every boy in that classroom wanted to marry you. You didn't know that." And I said, "No, I didn't. I never dated any man." So he said, "Well, I'm here. You promised and you would marry me? And let's go."

• 10:32Speaker 01

  And I thought about it and I thought, like here this man, right? Tall, handsome, good-looking, and coming all the way from Germany. And I just, my heart was just flushed and flooded with emotions, right? I never felt before. Then he also told me he wanted to take me to Germany, to study abroad. And that is almost impossible for Chinese to go abroad to study. That was everyone's dream. He was like a prince on a white horse, coming to fetch me

• 11:16Speaker 01

  and promised to take me to a paradise. And I looked around and some girls were just staring at me.

• 11:26Speaker 01

  And when I didn't say, "Let's go", they just like ping, "Go get married and go to Germany."

• 11:37Speaker 01

  "Didn't you hear this man like is going to take you to Germany? Are you like stupid or something?" So everyone was like cheering and cheering and, you know, and I just thought, it's so much pressure and so much confusion. And at the same time, I feel like really, really moved. He swung me, you know? And so I said, "Yes." And everyone, the girls like was cheering, "Yay, he is getting married, he is going to Germany."

• 12:16Speaker 01

  I just wrote a letter to my mom and dad, saying I'm getting married.

• 12:24Speaker 01

  And I'm going to Germany.

• 12:27Speaker 01

  That's it.

• 12:33Speaker 01

  So we went to the police station nearby. And that's how people get married, to go and register.

• 12:42Speaker 01

  I was wearing like the only shirt I had. So the woman was very kind and she registered us. And then she said, "Where's the marriage candy?" Getting married is a big thing in all cultures, right? And especially in China, you're supposed to have like three days of banquets. At least, the least you could do is like bring some candy to sweeten things up. And I have no idea, I never even dated a man.

• 13:16Speaker 01

  So, so we got the marriage paper and... Then my husband would say, "I will give you candy when we come back for divorce."

• 13:29Speaker 01

  And supposed to be a joke, I knew he meant it as a joke. Just when I heard that, my face just turned ashen. And I thought, "Whoa, this is not good luck words to say."

• 13:45Speaker 01

  Then he said, "Let's go to the sacred Buddhist mountain in Sichuan called Mount Emei." And for honeymoon, I said, "Whoa, honeymoon." Right, I asked him like how long? And he said, "It will be about one month honeymoon." I said, "Well, like in three weeks, I have to start working." Right, so I need to ask my boss if I could come back a week later.

• 14:21Speaker 01

  The new job I was about to start meant everything for me and for every Chinese. At that time in China, in order to have a place to live, you have to have a job.

• 14:41Speaker 01

  I just got a job in the translation company in Beijing. And they promised, once I start working on September 1st, I would have my own room, I would have my coupons to buy food. Everything in China was rationed. You need coupon for rice, for oil, for salt, for sugar, for clothes. And without a job, then you are nothing, you're nobody.

• 15:13Speaker 01

  So we went there. And actually, he brought me a very nice shirt. The collar kind of draped down and showed a little bit of my chest.

• 15:28Speaker 01

  And I went there and my new boss saw the new shirt. She was, I could tell, she was not happy to see me wearing that. It's such a fashionable, they called it very unserious and not unprofessional shirt outfit. So I told her that I just got married and this is my new husband. And she congratulated me. And then said, "I may need a little bit extra time because we're going on a honeymoon. And after two or three years, I would like to go to Germany to live with my husband."

• 16:10Speaker 01

  My husband was immediately like muttering protest. "No, two or three years, that's way too long. I want you to come with me, preferably this time with me, come with me." When my boss heard that, she just said, "Oh, in that case, why don't you just go to Germany now? You don't need to come to work."

• 16:37Speaker 01

  She fired me on the spot. She said, "Even if you worked for me, it's very difficult for the company to get a good student from Beijing University. And we fought very, very hard to get you. And we were given this one spot. And you took it, and then you leave. Then we lose this opportunity. We're not going to be to get this another chance again. But if you don't come, we can go back to Beijing University. We can ask for another quota." And I understood. So I didn't try to argue with her. And I just started crying.

• 17:22Speaker 01

  I immediately felt the weight of that decision, the consequence of that. And I had my husband, and he was going back to Germany after the honeymoon. And I had no idea when my visa would come through. What was I supposed to do when I had no place to stay?

• 17:48Speaker 01

  My husband said, "Don't worry, don't worry. Let's go to honeymoon, and then we'll immediately start applying your visa for Germany. You know, we'll see how things go."

• 18:07Speaker 01

  So, next day, we took the train and went to Sichuan and started climbing the Mount Emei.

• 18:19Speaker 01

  From the bottom, it's almost like a rainforest. So a lot of greens, a lot of woods, like some big woods. And then, as we go up higher, it changes.

• 18:35Speaker 01

  And the trail was narrow, but we managed to walk together, shoulder by shoulder. So I thought, as a honeymoon, like we would probably like share a room. But he seemed not that interested.

• 19:00Speaker 01

  I always stayed with ten other women, snoring like crazy, and I couldn't sleep well. And my husband always stayed with ten other men. And I wonder where he was and why we're not together. I was already a little bit upset, because this is supposed to be a honeymoon. So I thought he might be like still a student, and he probably spent all his money on the airplane ticket.

• 19:31Speaker 01

  So I was a little bit annoyed on the third day, and we're talking about the full moon, and the full moon was still up in the sky. Like, as we were walking and looking at the full moon, and I was a little bit sentimental. And I just said, the moon, like, in Chinese culture, represented the unity, union, romance, and love. I was about to say, I wish we had stayed in the same room together. That's where I was trying to go. And he basically just said, "Just a stupid moon." I said, "No."

• 20:09Speaker 01

  The moon is so important for us. You know, the moon calendar, you know, the Chinese civilization, and our calendar is a moon calendar. And how could you call the moon stupid? It's nothing. He finally got mad. He called me stupid. And when I get mad, I just stop talking. I just stopped talking to him. And he just stomped away. And he refused to apologize. And I stomped away, and I was really mad. I grew up being called stupid, dumb, and stubborn, like a donkey. So that really got me.

• 20:54Speaker 01

  I know I'm not stupid. I may be ugly, and I may be socially inept, but I know I'm not stupid, because I always got AIDS, right? I would not allow anyone to call me stupid to my face.

• 21:20Speaker 01

  Before at least we were walking shoulder to shoulder that day. He was walking with other people, I was walking with other people. And then the next day, you know, we tried to talk and ended up in another stupid argument. Every time we tried to reconcile, we started arguing. I started doubting like, is this what marriage is about? This seems like suck, you know? That doesn't seem like that much fun, actually. So, yeah, and I was worried how to get along with him in Germany.

• 22:07Speaker 01

  So next day I tried to reconcile with him and tried to bring up other subjects. Actually, my dream to study in America. I really like literature, I like poetry, I like art. Then he told me, well, one has to eat first, right? And he basically said, no, you're going to Germany and studying business. And help me with business, we're going to make money. And I can't argue with my husband. What am I supposed to do? He is right, he is paying for everything.

• 22:51Speaker 01

  And I have no money to pay for this honeymoon, right? So what could I say, except to be quiet and walk behind him?

• 23:07Speaker 01

  He was walking ahead of me. We were going through this beautiful bamboo woods and just really green and really lush. He was walking like 10 yards ahead of me and I was walking behind him.

• 23:29Speaker 01

  Suddenly, a group of gigantic monkeys surrounded me. The head monkey is very big, he was like taller than me.

• 23:46Speaker 01

  So I tried to raise my stick to scare them away. And that was a huge mistake. He screamed and then he was on top of me.

• 23:59Speaker 01

  And all the other monkeys was on top of me. Pulling my legs, pulling my hair, scratching me. And I tried to like fight them off with my stick.

• 24:12Speaker 01

  And then the other monkey bit my leg so hard and I just screamed. And then I looked up.

• 24:24Speaker 01

  I saw my husband standing like a few yards away laughing.

• 24:34Speaker 01

  And I was furious and just thought, "Come!" And I screamed, "Help, come help me." "Come, just like get rid of the monkeys, pull them off me." And he just like, just laughing like idiot.

• 24:54Speaker 01

  He would not come close to me.

• 24:57Speaker 01

  So finally, I think those monkeys took the peanuts from my backpack. And that's their goal, that's all they wanted from me, the peanuts from my backpack.

• 25:12Speaker 01

  Then suddenly they just vanished, they were gone. They came so suddenly, they were gone so suddenly.

• 25:23Speaker 01

  And I got up and I was, my leg was bleeding heavily. And I was just, I could barely walk. And so he just said, "Are you okay?" I said nothing, I was really, really mad at him. So I just walked by him and, and just limped to the destination, to our hotel.

• 26:05Glynn Washington?

  Snappers, Ping and her husband have been fighting all the way up this honeymoon mountain. Before we climb after them, we're gonna take a short break. Stay tuned.

• 26:25Glynn Washington?

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• 27:08Glynn Washington?

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• 27:23Glynn Washington?

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• 28:06Glynn Washington?

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• 28:37Glynn Washington?

  Welcome back to Snap Judgment. You're listening to the Ping episode. Now Ping just fought off a band of monkeys on her own. All the while, her husband laughed in the corner. And now she's headed to the hotel to spend the rest of her honeymoon with the man she just married. Snap Judgment.

• 28:59Speaker 01

  So we got there and it was about the dinnertime. And but I had to clean up. My jeans were just like soaked in blood. So I took them off. Then I like soaked my jeans in the basin outside in the tap water. And my husband came out and he looked a little bit sad. He looked like as if he wanted to reconcile with me. He threw his dirty socks and his dirty underwear into my basin where my bloody jeans were, right? He said, "Wash it for me."

• 29:44Speaker 01

  And just something inside me just exploded.

• 29:50Speaker 01

  I understand his motive. It's an intimate gesture for traditional Chinese man, for the wife to wash. My husband is looking for, needed a woman who would quietly cook, wash, do housework and raise children. I always knew I wanted to have kids and take care of my husband, but not in this kind of fashion. I said, "Why don't you wash your own socks and underwear?" So I just take them out, wash my jeans and then went back to my own room with other woman

• 30:35Speaker 01

  and spent a sleepless night. I could not sleep at all.

• 30:43Speaker 01

  We got up like 3 o'clock, 3 a.m. We went to the peak. That was like the most glorious like scene. So I was with one crowd and my husband was with another crowd. And we watched this magnificent sunrise. Just the sun coming, rise little by little out of this mist ocean.

• 31:15Speaker 01

  Then, when it's all over, I walked towards him.

• 31:22Speaker 01

  I told him, "I'm going down the mountain. I'm going back to Beijing. I am not going to Germany with you."

• 31:33Speaker 01

  And he thought about it.

• 31:36Speaker 01

  He said, "You're probably right. We're not meant for each other. We're not made for each other." Then I said, "Can we just file divorce right now? And I can just..."

• 31:51Speaker 01

  Bring that divorce paper down with me so I'm free again? And he thought about it, he said, "Well, when you go back as a single woman, you will encounter a lot of great difficulties. First of all, you don't even have a place to live, and you have no money. You have no food to eat because you lost your job already. Do you know where you're going to stay?" I said, "That's none of your business now, right? I will figure it out."

• 32:27Speaker 01

  Then I turned and walked down the mountain by myself, and I was just sobbing all the way down the mountain.

• 32:40Speaker 01

  And I was crying in the train. And it was... I was telling myself, "You're such a failure, King."

• 32:48Speaker 01

  Right, loser, you know? And it's supposed to be such the ideal marriage, and you messed it up. And now you are homeless. You know, you don't have a job, you don't have a place, you don't have money, you don't have food to eat. What are you going to do?

• 33:11Speaker 01

  You know, I got my baggage. It was not easy. They almost arrested me

• 33:20Speaker 01

  for trespassing, but I finally got my baggage and also my bike.

• 33:30Speaker 01

  I just biked around and I spent the winter in Beijing, from abandoned building to another.

• 33:44Speaker 01

  Every once a week, I would go back to Beijing University, to that concierge lady, and ask her if I got mail. She would always grumpyly give me my mail. And one day, I found this mail. I got this mail from German Embassy that I got the visa.

• 34:10Speaker 01

  You know, I was really hungry. I was very cold. And I was homeless. I had no future. And here, the door to paradise is wide open to me.

• 34:28Speaker 01

  The normal people would say, "Yeah, I'm going to Germany."

• 34:35Speaker 01

  I didn't speak a word of German. And without the language, I couldn't work, right? I have to go to him, stay with him. But I chose not to go.

• 34:52Speaker 01

  So I chose homeless. It was my stubborn nature.

• 35:21Glynn Washington?

  So, what happened to Ping? Everyone wants to know. Well, Ping did eventually make it out of that cold Beijing winter because of poetry professor Emeritus in cold, snowy Minnesota. She's an award-winning poet who's published 15 books. And this next clip I'm going to play for you is Ping onstage performing a piece from one of those books. You might even recognize some of the elements from the story we just heard. But listen for additional details about what happened after she came down from the mountain. Ping Wong with the poem, "A Flash of Selfish Consciousness."

• 36:00Speaker 02

  Flash of selfish consciousness. This poem is for the memory of Cultural Revolution. I grew up there since I was nine, yeah, eight, eight years old. And for ten years I have to write self-criticism every day in my family, at home and in school, or wherever I was at that time.

• 36:27Speaker 02

  And since I came here, I never had to do it, and sometimes I did feel kind of nostalgia.

• 36:36Speaker 02

  "It's easy to do a good deed here and there, but a different matter to keep it up daily. For evil has many faces, and we must dig into the bottom of the soul to catch flashes of selfish consciousness," as Mao urged us in his Red Treasure Book. "It hurts, but it's good to be hurt from time to time," says my Chinese doctor, digging, elbowing, and kneeling into the acupuncture spots of the body. "The body twitches and aches and screams. With a serene smile on his face, the doctor says, 'Pain awakens in the heart and keeps it in good shape.'"

• 37:20Speaker 02

  When I was seven, I became crazy about wuxiangdou, five-spiced beans. My grandma would give me only two or three each time, five if I was good. So I began to steal coins from under her pillow, one at a time. When I got fifty-seven coins, I went to the store and bought half a kilogram of the beans. I took the bag to the kitchen and put it onto the greasy table. I put my arms around the pile. This was all mine. I didn't have to share it with anyone else. I didn't have to pretend to be a selfless daughter or an elder sister.

• 38:02Speaker 02

  I could eat it quickly or slowly, standing or sitting or lying down, any manner I fancied. I could throw or give it away. I was the master of these beans. The kitchen was dark. The sun was shimmering in the sky of the summer noon. The beans smelled seductive. I filled my mouth with a handful and chewed until my jaws ached and numbed. Tears rolled down as I thought, "Ah, life is so good." And wouldn't it be better if no one ever woke up from their nap to interrupt my happiness?

• 38:44Speaker 02

  Happiness is as much as anything, an illusion, a hypothesis, or a process of overcoming a series of pains. The sensation of feeling uprooted and floating or stuck in the present, unable to move back or forward. You said, "Too bad women don't give you a chance." But do I really want a chance? You placed your hand on my shoulder, your eyes the look of an animal. One day I asked, "Mother, something is wrong with me. I feel dizzy and nauseous. My joints hurt like hell. My face burns and I'm pissing blood." Too much sex, my dear daughter.

• 39:30Speaker 02

  "Mother, I just got fired from my job, my writing rejected, and I might lose my apartment in the summer." What's going on? Sex brings bad luck. How many times do I need to tell you?

• 39:47Speaker 02

  "Mother, my days are now filled with despair and my nights taken over by fever and bouts of sweat. I can't make friends with women. Men dumped me for lack of tenderness. Mother, I think I'm going insane." This is the last time I say this, daughter. Sex is the root of all sickness and evil deeds. Look at me. Since your father's death, I got my health back and my eternal happiness.

• 40:32Glynn Washington?

  That was poet Ping Wong performing an excerpt from her award-winning work. Thank you so much Ping for sharing your story. We'll have links to Ping's work on our website, snapjudgment.org. The original score was by Daniel Riera. It was produced by Annie Nguyen.

• 41:04Glynn Washington?

  Now, in just a moment, the serenade of a lifetime. Stay tuned.

• 41:19Glynn Washington?

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• 42:02Glynn Washington?

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• 42:16Glynn Washington?

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• 42:58Glynn Washington?

  Get free shipping on your order and 365 day returns. Now available in Canada and the UK too. And when Quince asks where you heard about them, let them know it was Snap Judgment. It's the best way to support the show.

• 43:18Glynn Washington?

  Welcome back to Snap Judgment. My name is Glynn Washington. Now, our next story comes to us from our friends at The Nocturnus. And in it, family medicine physician Catherine Forrest tells us about a hospital experience that transported her back to her childhood.

• 43:39Speaker 03

  Of course, it was the ER nurse that figured it out. This motherly Ukrainian woman sidles up to me and pats my belly. You're of his child, no?

• 43:54Speaker 03

  How did she know? Only two days before, I'd been hiding in the nurse's bathroom in the ER, propped up in the stall with pregnancy test in my hand, waiting to see what I was gonna find. And when that second pink dot lit up that I was pregnant, I practically screamed, holding it in.

• 44:14Speaker 03

  But that was gonna be a secret. You see, this was the 1980s, and to my knowledge, there'd been only one woman at my university, which shall be unnamed, that had had a baby in training and hadn't dropped out of medicine completely. The nurse promised me she wouldn't tell anyone, but whenever I came into the emergency room, she gave me that knowing look. This was Mount Zion Hospital. It's in a neighborhood that is, at that time, was largely Eastern European and Russian. We had mostly immigrants for our patients. I remember this one feisty, older Hungarian woman

• 44:56Speaker 03

  who had life-size posters of the 49ers in her room and would page me overhead excitedly when she found out that I was from Hungarian heritage. And when I got there, you know, we were all about Roger Craig and Joe Montana's latest play, but mainly, she just wanted to pinch my cheek. "Mozdik, szép, ez!" she would say, just like my Hungarian grandparents. It was really a sweet and wonderful time in so many ways. The morning I found out that I was pregnant, I had admitted a 92-year-old Russian woman to our service. I was a third-year medical student on the team, and she'd had a stroke and was in a coma and unresponsive.

• 45:41Speaker 03

  And her son comes walking up and tells me and the intern, "We want her to have dignity," he says. And the intern, like, looks blankly at him. "Keep her this way," he says. "We want a friend to come visit, zac, zis." And he's like, the intern's like, completely clueless. But I could hear English in anyone's speech. In fact, when I was nine years old is when I figured out that my grandparents didn't speak English like other people. I thought that's just how older people spoke.

• 46:23Speaker 03

  You know, like, my friends would come over, and I'd be translating English into English.

• 46:30Speaker 03

  So when this 92-year-old woman was there, and her son was trying to speak with us, I could step in and translate. And I did. I was able to say that this woman had a living will, the family wanted her to live, and that a special guest would be coming that evening.

• 46:50Speaker 03

  "It is Isaac Stern," he says. Isaac Stern. Only the greatest violinist of that time. My jaw drops. But my classical musician's heart leapt two octaves. So later that night, quite late, this older, you know, balding, sick man comes striding up to the nursing station with his worn violin case. And I go to meet him. "I would like to find Ms. Beena," he says. Mrs. Beena. I'm making up her name. And I'm completely speechless because I recognize Isaac Stern. So we walked down the hallway.

• 47:34Speaker 03

  And a nighttime hospital is a sacred place, and really quite odd. There's that blue light from rooms for people watching TV. And there's the sound of, you know, canned laughter and mechanical sounds of respirators. And the nurses are all different places charting, but there are no visitors. So together, we walked down the hall. And he says, "Maestro taught me everything I know about music, everything I know. And she was like a mother to me." And I say, "Well, she's not awake right now, but we know that hearing is the most primitive of the senses. And if you can communicate with her, you'll be able to connect.

• 48:19Speaker 03

  You should feel free to do that." And we arrive at the door, and he says, "It is OK if I play violin."

• 48:30Speaker 03

  "Absolutely," I say, "absolutely." And then I realize, is it okay if I listen? And he says, "Yes." And I take his hand, and we walk into her room together. And there's my patient with her head on the pillow, her face sagging, looking ashen. And there's Isaac Stern, transparent with emotion. I say, "Isaac Stern is here to play some music for you." He takes his violin out of the case and begins to tune up. And I step out of the hallway, and I sink down onto the floor, hands on knees, to listen.

• 49:24Speaker 03

  When I was just a kid, my brother and I used to climb under the piano of my grandfather. My grandfather and my father were playing four-hands piano, versions of symphonies. And we felt like we were inside that piano, like the music was part of us.

• 49:45Speaker 03

  So as Isaac started to play this Tchaikovsky violin concerto that I know so well, but never have I heard played like this.

• 49:58Speaker 03

  Tears are just streaming down my face. And I feel my grandfather actually with me. "Beautiful," he says, "beautiful." I'm just crying.

• 50:12Speaker 03

  After about 30 minutes, Isaac Stern comes out of the room with wonder in his eyes. And he says, "She opened her eyes. She looked at me."

• 50:23Speaker 03

  I looked at him. He looked at me. We held hands. I looked in his eyes. And he knew that I knew what had happened.

• 50:32Speaker 03

  I stepped inside to see my patient, Ms. Bina. And there she was, peaceful-looking. And a couple hours later, she died.

• 50:46Speaker 03

  That night, as I climbed into my bed, I felt actually completely at peace in the universe. I had heard celestial music being played. And I was very excited about this life inside me. And I just hoped with all my heart that my child would be able to experience music the way I had that night, just coursing through my body. The next morning, I get up, put on my lab coat, get off to morning rounds, reach into my pocket, pull out those index cards. Yeah, index cards. And Ms. Venus is blank. She died in the evening, I said.

• 51:29Speaker 03

  But what I longed to say was that I learned something really important about human connection and that Isaac Stern's music had made the most beautiful death possible for this person.

• 52:19Glynn Washington?

  That story, "Dying to Tchaikovsky", came to us from The Nocturnist Podcast. It was told by Catherine Forst, M.D. The Nocturnist are a vibrant community of healthcare workers who are celebrating their humanity through storytelling, death-life performances, a podcast, and so much more. The Nocturnist is hosted by Emily Silverman, produced by Emily Silverman and Marina Poole, story development by Adelaide Papazoglou, sound engineering by Alberto Hernandez, assistant producing by Kirk Klocke, original theme music by Yasi Monroe, traditional music by Blue Dot Sessions. Learn more about The Nocturnist on our website, snapjudgment.org.

• 53:07Glynn Washington?

  Yes, yes, you've just walked a mile in someone else's shoes. How does it feel? Like you want more journeys, right? Like, whose life you get to live next? Here's what you do. To be the most interesting person your friends know, follow Snap Judgment on any podcast platform for more incredible stories from all over the world. SnapJudgment.org. Snap is brought to you by the team that greets each day with a smile. Except for the Uber user, Mark Ristich. He greets each day blaming random people for hiding his keys. Check your pants pocket, Mark.

• 53:48Glynn Washington?

  Nancy Lopez, Pat McSweeney Miller, Anna Sussman, Renzo Goryo, Shana Shealy, Taylor Decot, Flo Wiley, John Facio, Melissa Dodge, Regina Berriaco, Davy Kim, Bo Walsh, David Exame, and Amy Nguyen.

• 54:07Glynn Washington?

  Wow, this is not the news. No way this is the news. In fact, at the kid's party, you could pull a rabbit out of a hat only to realize this is not a hat. And that certainly isn't a rabbit. All of this, and you would still, still not be as far away from the news as this is. But this is PRX.