美国国家公共电台 NPR Opinion: Remembering A Soprano With The 'Warmth And Strength Of The Sun'

 

SCOTT SIMON, HOST:

Never been a better name for a person than Charity Sunshine Tillemann-Dick. She died this week at the age of 35. Charity was diagnosed with pulmonary arterial hypertension when she was a young opera singer in Europe. She had two double-lung transplants in the past ten years, flatlined twice, sank into comas¹, suffered innumerable close calls and lights-blinking, horn-blaring Intensive Care Unit emergencies, only to always come roaring back with rekindled² energy and sunny grace to sing and to shine.

I got to know Charity Sunshine and her family because we were patients at the Cleveland Clinic. She had the remarkable³ effect of making you both count your blessings⁴ and ask yourself, if she could do so much, beset⁵ by so many challenges, how can I even take the day off with a cold? Charity considered every breath she took - to sing, to laugh, to love, - a gift from God and from a couple of families who passed the spark of new life on to her with the lungs of their departed loved ones. When she wrote about her singing debut⁶ at Lincoln Center in her beautiful memoir⁷, "Encore," Charity recalled the frozen moment of stillness when she took the stage.

(Reading) I know I didn't get here alone, she wrote. I think about my father and my grandfather. About my incredible mother. My brother and sisters. I think of all they've sacrificed to help me reach this moment. I think about my friends and teachers scattered⁸ across the globe. I think of my doctors and my nurses, about the IV hanging out of my arm and the young woman whose death brought me back to life. I think of the lungs I'm rejecting. I think of the breath they've given me. I am about to make my Lincoln Center debut, it's a miracle. But it's not just one, a thousand and one miracles have paved this most unlikely of paths. I began to sing, wrote Charity Sunshine Tillemann-Dick. There is nothing but darkness, the music, breath and air. I know I am dying. I've never felt so alive.

And she used that extra life to sing, record albums, write a musical and go out into the world to talk about the vital gift of organ donation. To know Charity was to feel some of the warmth and strength of the sun and I know she would want me to use whatever chance I have to speak about her now to say that signing a simple form to donate your organs after you are gone can give new life to people who can use that extra life to bring more grace, love and laughter into this world - and to sing.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "ABIDE⁹ WITH ME, TIS EVENTIDE")

CHARITY SUNSHINE TILLEMANN-DICK: (Singing) Abide with me tis eventide. The day is past and gone. The shadows of the evening fall. The night is coming on. Within my heart a welcome guest. Within my home abide.

SIMON: Charity Sunshine Tillemann-Dick.

1 comas   

n.昏迷( coma的名词复数 )

参考例句：

2 rekindled   

v.使再燃( rekindle的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• As soon as they met again his dormant love for her was rekindled. 他们一见面，他对她的旧情如乾柴烈火般又重新燃起。 来自辞典例句
• Ive found rekindled my interest in re-reading the books. 我发觉这提起了我再次阅读这些书的兴趣。 来自互联网

3 remarkable   

adj.显著的，异常的，非凡的，值得注意的

参考例句：

• She has made remarkable headway in her writing skills.她在写作技巧方面有了长足进步。
• These cars are remarkable for the quietness of their engines.这些汽车因发动机没有噪音而不同凡响。

4 blessings   

n.（上帝的）祝福( blessing的名词复数 )；好事；福分；因祸得福

参考例句：

• Afflictions are sometimes blessings in disguise. 塞翁失马，焉知非福。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• We don't rely on blessings from Heaven. 我们不靠老天保佑。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

5 beset   

v.镶嵌；困扰，包围

参考例句：

• She wanted to enjoy her retirement without being beset by financial worries.她想享受退休生活而不必为金钱担忧。
• The plan was beset with difficulties from the beginning.这项计划自开始就困难重重。

6 debut   

n.首次演出，初次露面

参考例句：

• That same year he made his Broadway debut, playing a suave radio journalist.在那同一年里，他初次在百老汇登台，扮演一个温文而雅的电台记者。
• The actress made her debut in the new comedy.这位演员在那出新喜剧中首次登台演出。

7 memoir   

n.[pl.]回忆录，自传；记事录

参考例句：

• He has just published a memoir in honour of his captain.他刚刚出了一本传记来纪念他的队长。
• In her memoir,the actress wrote about the bittersweet memories of her first love.在那个女演员的自传中，她写到了自己苦乐掺半的初恋。

8 scattered   

adj.分散的，稀疏的；散步的；疏疏落落的

参考例句：

• Gathering up his scattered papers,he pushed them into his case.他把散乱的文件收拾起来，塞进文件夹里。

9 abide   

vi.遵守；坚持；vt.忍受

参考例句：

• You must abide by the results of your mistakes.你必须承担你的错误所造成的后果。
• If you join the club,you have to abide by its rules.如果你参加俱乐部，你就得遵守它的规章。