![\"\"](\"https:\/\/forallevents.com\/reviews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/12\/Jan.jpg\")
<\/a>Jan Brown gleefully holds the toilet paper she\u2019d coveted. Photo: Woody Weingarten.<\/p><\/div>\n
I wished for an instant I was curled up in fetal position, sucking my thumb, in bed at home in San Anselmo.<\/p>\n
Instead, I was in Yonkers, a New York City suburb, watching my wife, Nancy Fox, play a concert grand Steinway piano to a nearly empty 300-seat library auditorium following a total publicity failure by the staff.And that misadventure followed a 9-1-1 call for my daughter, Jan Brown, who\u2019d had a diabetic meltdown in a fancy-schmancy deli.<\/p>\n
Not quite the 50th birthday celebration for her we\u2019d envisioned.<\/p>\n
Toward the rear of the auditorium sat an elderly couple that reminded me of Fred and Ethel Mertz from \u201cI Love Lucy.\u201d My daughter, son, grandson and I scattered around the room, pretending we were part of a mob scene.<\/p>\n
\u201cLooks like I\u2019m playing for my family, two new friends and 294 ghosts,\u201d said my wife, a pro.\u201cI was scheduled to play Oscar-winning songs,\u201d Nancy announced, \u201cbut if any of you have requests, I\u2019ll play them instead \u2014 after I start with the first Academy Award tune, \u2018The Continental,\u2019 which has special meeting for me: It was my parents’ song. It was playing the night they met, the same night my father proposed.\u201d<\/p>\n
Vigorous applause \u2014 robust considering there were only six of us \u2014 greeted her finish.<\/p>\n
Jan asked for “Sunrise, Sunset,” a mega-sentimental tune from \u201cFiddler on the Roof,\u201d and the couple followed with requests for Cole Porter songs: “Begin the Beguine” and “Let’s Do It.”<\/p>\n
Nancy cheerfully played them \u2014 and dozens more.Six people swayed to her hour-long artistry. The ghosts? Well, I couldn\u2019t hear their applause, but I\u2019m positive they gave her a standing ovation, too.<\/p>\n
My wife had planned the concert as a surprise gift, intending to dedicate it to Jan. But my disabled daughter had been so excited to see us she\u2019d forgotten to eat breakfast \u2014 and then taken her insulin anyway.<\/p>\n
Blood sugar tailspin!<\/p>\n
The paramedics helped her recover just in time for me to whisk her to the auditorium.<\/p>\n
Regrettably, a similar incident occurred days later.Jan\u2019s top birthday wish? No diamonds. No cavier. Just toilet paper that wouldn\u2019t stop up her apartment toilet like the brand she\u2019d been using.<\/p>\n
So I drove her to Costco.<\/p>\n
But Jan\u2019s blood sugar decided to react badly to meds she\u2019d taken.<\/p>\n
Nosedive No. 2!<\/p>\n
My daughter eventually got her wish, but the purchase jerked me back to a happier moment in Guasco\u2019s market in San Anselmo.<\/p>\n
A day after I\u2019d interviewed Ram Dass, he was in an aisle buying odds and ends. Nancy giggled.\u201cWhat\u2019s funny?\u201d I asked.<\/p>\n
\u201cWell,\u201d she said, pointing to the toilet paper the world-renowned thinker had stuffed under his arm, \u201cthat\u2019s the great cosmic equalizer, isn\u2019t it?\u201d<\/p>\n
We all chuckled.<\/p>\n
Being able to give life\u2019s pitfalls a horselaugh, I\u2019m convinced, is the best medicine.<\/p>\n
Heading back home, Nancy and I sailed through airport security. Putting my belt back on, however, it broke. Using one hand to pull my carry-on, the other to keep\u00a0my<\/p>\n
pants from dropping to my knees, I entered every shop that might peddle belts. None stocked anything to fit my size-43 waist.So Nancy and I laughed.<\/p>\n
I bought one later, at the other end.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, I also had time to ponder a pair of anecdotes Jan had happily recalled.<\/p>\n
“I remember listening \u2014 as child lying on a couch in your den \u2014 to the tick-tick-tick of your typewriter, and staring at the thousands of books that went up to the ceiling,” she\u2019d said.<\/p>\n
“And I remember having the school call home to ask where I was \u2014 I was methodically chipping away at ice because there was a dollar frozen in it.”<\/p>\n
Her memories moved me.Being a dad can be tough in the best of times. Being the father of a disabled person can be especially difficult, particularly when she lives 2,560 air miles away.<\/p>\n
But I don\u2019t plan to trade her in.<\/p>\n
Jan\u2019s bright, sensitive and generous with her love and time and money. A caring mom and daughter.<\/p>\n
My trip was emotionally draining, mentally draining, physically draining. But worth it. After all, she\u2019ll always be my little girl.<\/p>\n
Besides, I was able to bask in her smiles when I bought her some new clothes and a dresser to keep them in.As her great-grandma used to beseech God, \u201cLet her use them in good health.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I wished for an instant I was curled up in fetal position, sucking my thumb, in bed at home in San Anselmo. Instead, I was in Yonkers, a New…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":32,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"yasr_overall_rating":0,"yasr_post_is_review":"","yasr_auto_insert_disabled":"","yasr_review_type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-9064","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-woody-weingarten"},"yasr_visitor_votes":{"stars_attributes":{"read_only":true,"span_bottom":"