I’ll try to keep it short. I mean, I’ll try….
So, Kathy’s birthday was this week. I get a little weepy as I’m writing, because I am so beyond proud of her.
Kathy made a big shift in her life a few years back, a jump-into-the-deep-end kind of commitment to becoming a Speech-Language Pathologist after a lifetime of acting on stage and screen - and raising two boys. You might know how challenging that was. Or maybe you don’t….
It meant an hour subway ride to and from Brooklyn for about three years to take a raft of post-bac classes that her diploma from Mount Holyoke did not encompass. Then a pretty grueling two and a half year graduate course at Hunter College. Anatomy, Neurology, Chemistry, Statistics, Audiology…the list goes on. Definitely not in her grab-bag from her arts education. She came through with flying colors - no surprise to me. But it was not easy.
Internship, clinical fellowship… and now she has been providing services to middle school kids for a few years uptown in Inwood. It’s a boisterous bunch (I mean, it’s middle school, right?) with obstacles galore - one of which being that the school’s model is to do “push-in” services - meaning the vast majority of the treatment she gives happens IN the classroom while the teacher attempts to lead the kids through their very challenging curriculum. An ambitious structure that has its benefits - but not exactly a cakewalk.
“Miss Kathy” is changing these kids’ lives. Providing so many tools that they will carry with them - not just the speech and articulation you might be thinking of, but basic cognitive, reading, communication and social skills that are in short supply. And the central take-away of kindness. To oneself as well as to others. It is focused, intense and exhausting work, and she is using “every part of herself” as she said to a friend recently. An accomplished actor - and now a dedicated “SLP” providing services to these kids that need them so badly.
The stories she brings home are funny, wild - and to me, very moving. I know how lucky these children are to have her in their lives. Because my children and I have also been on the lucky end of that stick.
I am not an amazing present giver. Occasionally I’ll find something good, but I’m always happy to make something - a meal, a cake…. And as I cast around for the right present, I realized that Kathy doesn’t really need a thing…. So this year, it’s a song. This one tumbled out a few days before her birthday. As we know, some of them don’t do that. I woke up with the first line, then later that day drafted the lyrics. Grabbed the guitar and drafted the music and re-drafted the lyrics. Made a little iPhone recording for myself, then polished and arranged. Then into the DAW to record. (Nothing like a nice solid birthday deadline!)
Then, the cherry on top - Jesse, our younger son, came to town from his studies (pursuing his PhD up in Rochester in virology, immunology and microbiology…yes, with the older son doing his post-doc in small particle theoretical physics, I am officially the dumb one of the bunch!).
Jesse is also a really fabulous piano player. Jazz-focused, but he’s adaptable. So he chipped in for Kathy’s birthday present. That cherry on top is indeed really sweet. Lucky x 2 to get to share music with my beautiful son.
I got permission from Kathy to share the rough mix of the song here. Didn’t really get permission for the rest of this article. Sorry, darling.
Happy Birthday, Kathy!!
“You’ll Be Here”:
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