My good friend and San Antonio Symphony colleague Terry Stolow was seven months pregnant when she celebrated her 35th birthday. I wrote these verses in honor of the occasion.

TERRY DACTYL (1991)

Consider Atlanta, for that's where our saga starts:
Birthplace of Coke, and our heroine as well.
For there, in late summer, the fourteenth of August, starts
Terry Ann Franco, whose story we tell.

Georgia-born, Georgia-bred, Georgia-Bat mitzvahed,
She took up viola and gave it her all.
She practiced so hard that her fingers got blistered,
And soon Cleveland Institute gave her a call.

From Cleveland (the crème de la crème of her class), off
To Shreveport she went: she was principal there.
But still she kept working: she practiced her (head) off
And won her a job in the county of Bexar.

She graces her section, steadfastly enduring
Hard times when the orchestra's hung by a thread,
And, three years ago, was successful alluring
A young rheumatologist, Josh, whom she wed.

As Terry approaches her 35th birthday,
She's pregnant! (Not barefoot, however.) I send
My heartiest wishes of love, joy, and mirth. May
I say it's a privilege to call you a friend!


And when Terry left San Antonio for her three-month maternity leave, I gave her a card with the following verse. . . .

Fondly bid we adieu through December —
Three months that will seem an eternity...
Now your friendship and love we remember
As you journey From Here to Maternity.