The Encore
Page 28
Grandma Nancy, thank you for your independence, your zest for life, and for making such wonderful people with Granddad Howard! Justin, Helen, Orion, and Haven, I am so proud of all the good you bring into the world. Margot, having you in my life is like still having the best parts of my father with a softer, Margot touch. Your kindness, thoughtfulness, and willingness to be there when people (oftentimes me) need it most have been a source of strength, love, and stability in my crazy life. You and Uncle Bill give me and Yoni examples of how to live meaningful lives and share joy. We love you.
Katrina, Dick, Chelsea, Keato, Shebby, Chante, Kizzy, Atticus, and Sunday: thank you for the love, the cards, the packages, and the support, even as we thought the end was so fast approaching. SO excited for all the new babies!
Mimo, your writing entertains me and your quests for understanding inspire me. Thank you for bringing us to a faith that binds us together even after death and for helping connect us to a past from which we learn so much. Mary Bush—there is a reason you are the most trusted woman in Washington, and I am so grateful you’re part of my family.
To my family related by breath more than blood—my every moment is an extension of the life you share with me. I don’t know who prolonged my life for two years so I could receive a better match. To the family of my donor, “thank you” will never be enough, but I hope that in some way this book can serve as a testament to the goodness that life held. I hope to meet you someday. Esperanza and Luan—this year you bring yet another life into the world, but Esperanza, you already brought a life back from the dead. You give me so much confidence in the hope all of our futures hold. I know your faith, love, and extraordinary gifts will continue to bless many lives. Eden and Odin—I couldn’t have completed this book without meeting you and I’m so grateful that you’re a part of my life now. I can’t wait to see what you’ll accomplish in your futures. Karen and Kevin Gorby couldn’t be a more perfect match for the two of you, and I love you all.
Dulcia, thank you for being my friend. Thank you for caring for me, singing to me, and so often making me feel loved. Tomicah, thank you for setting such a high mark. Your success, hard work, and example paved the way for every successful sibling that followed. You and Sarah have built such a beautiful family, and I can’t wait to see how Eli, Thomas, Lincoln, Miriam, and Isaiah continue to follow in your footsteps. Kimber, thank you for your love and encouragement. Your capacity for vicarious joy has taught me about myself and how to be a better person. Esther, Phineus, and Willa make me much more content about not having my own children. On that note, unless you and David distract me with another baby soon, I might have to get some of my own.
Corban, thank you for helping me negotiate some of the most challenging parts of this book, for coming to see me with Tiny Timber and Narae when I needed it most, and for being someone every one of us can always count on. I am so fortunate to have you. We all are. You’re the son and the brother Dad always knew you would be. Narae’s and your capacity for forgiveness and love are an inspiration to me. Liberty, you’re a gorgeous writer and person: you have a knack for catchy names and beautiful framing (aka this book cover). Thank you for bringing both Premal and Rahm into our lives. You’re a beautiful mother, and I love you and your family so very much. Shiloh Benson, you knew I needed someone who loved me and didn’t care about the book—you only cared about making me feel valued, included, and entertained. You brought me doughnuts and told me stories about the world outside of my ever-expanding Word document. Thank you for your genius, your humor, and friendship. You’re deeply gifted and one of my very favorite people.
Mercina, when I came home after cancer surgery on my face to find every one of my mirrors covered in comics, I broke down into a soppy mess. You understand the details that make a person, an event, an organization feel cared for, myself included. Your combination of beauty, insight, and competence is rare. Honestly, it doesn’t seem fair. Thank you for sharing your gifts with our whole family. Zen, when I was in the hospital waiting for the second transplant, few people could make me feel as safe and protected as you did. You’d sit by my side and talk with me in a way that made me feel you understood—that you cared. I know my challenges have taken more of a toll on your life than they’ve taken on anyone other than me. But I am so proud of all of the good decisions you make and all of the good you have yet to do.
To my brother Levi—you were the one who told me it was time to write a book, and I knew you were right. But after two lung transplants and cancer, writing a memoir like this is certainly one of the most awful things I’ve ever endured. Thank you. Thank you for sitting with me for hours and editing my proposal, for guiding me through the process, for offering your advice when I needed it, for wrangling the siblings to help, for believing in me, for loving me and reassuring me through the torment and isolation of writing, for being a true friend, and the best kind of brother to me. You’ve always encouraged me and seen my potential, cheering me on and helping me up when I fall down. For all of our differences, you manage to see my gifts. When others saw me as an entirely new species of human, you saw a partner in adventure. Some things don’t change. I love you dearly.
Noni, you are a truly wonderful sister. You always knew it wasn’t your angelic appearance that made you remarkable; it was your intellect, creativity, goodness, and soul. Your patience, empathy, and capacity to refrain from judgment make me want to be a better person. Your skill as a wordsmith has made me a better writer. I hope Mongolia is an exquisite adventure. I miss you dearly and eagerly await your return.
My dearest husband, when you gave me that card during our first Christmas that said we make a great team, I found it disappointingly unromantic. We were so in love. Was that the best you could do? After nearly a decade, I see you were right: We are a great team. And there’s no one who I’d rather have by my side during this terrifying, incredible, infuriating, beautiful, joyous life. You make my happiness brighter, my peace more tranquil, my challenges lighter, my sorrows bearable. You even make me feel beautiful when I look like a monster. You combine all the messy, hard, complicated ingredients of my life into something deliciously exciting. You’re my Vitamix dreamboat. I am so grateful that we’ll have an eternity together. (To the reader: If you find someone who makes chemo and radiation feel more like an unpleasant but restful vacation, don’t ever let them go. Ever.)
Dearest Mommy, the gift of life is more than any of us deserve. But if nobody can ever repay their mother, I must merit an entirely new debt classification. You not only gave me my life, you gave me yours. And your life is something uncommon and incredibly fine. You devoted yourself to me and my beloved brothers and sisters (thanks for them too, by the way). Then you saved my life not once, not twice, but countless times. Both Heaven and I know you’ll probably save it a few more times yet. Momo, you are my harshest critic, my greatest hero, and my beloved friend, teacher, caretaker, and cheerleader. How you do it all will never cease to baffle and amaze me. You’ve built your weaknesses into strengths time and again and you are my most important exemplar. Didi was right in thinking that nobody could ever deserve you, but we’re all lucky to have gotten you anyway. Thank you for your goodness, your faith, and your complete devotion. Thank you for never giving up on me and for never giving into the chorus of opposition you faced at so many junctures in your life. You are the strongest person I will ever know. I love you.
Dad, we miss you. Sometimes, I can hardly forgive you for not being here to see all the wonder you planted. The harvest is beautiful: wonderful people, interesting thoughts, communities from around the globe and in your own home. North Denver, quinoa, stevia, home schooling, urban living—if only you could live everything that’s happening on this big ball of blue and green since your dramatic departure. You and Mom were always about thirty years ahead of your time. Even your book about this sprawling, faithful, liberal family came a couple decades too soon. But you were a dream planter, and now we’re the ones reaping your vision. Impractical as
it may have seemed, the life you and Mom built together gave us all a foundation of eternal love, sacrifice, togetherness, and understanding. Thank you for never letting the untried scare you away from trying. We miss you so much, Dad. Thank you for giving us so many wonderful people. I have a feeling that, for all your differences on earth, you and Didi—Lincoln, too—are planting even more beauty in the great beyond. And now, Grandpa Howard is right there in the fields with you too. Thanks for looking out for all of us even though you’re so far away. We still need it. We love you.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Charity Tillemann-Dick is a soprano and top-selling Billboard classical artist. She studied music at the Peabody Institute at Johns Hopkins University and the Franz Liszt Academy of Music in Budapest, Hungary, where she was a Fulbright scholar. Raised in Denver, Colorado, with eleven brothers and sisters, she currently resides with her husband in Washington, DC, and Denver.
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Interior design by Kyoko Watanabe
Jacket design by Min Choi
Jacket photography of Tillemann-Dick by Liberty Tillemann-Dick and Stage Photograph by Istock / Getty Images Plus
Author photograph by John Armato
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Tillemann-Dick, Charity.
Title: The encore : a memoir in three acts / Charity Tillemann-Dick.
Description: First Atria Books hardcover edition. | New York : Atria Books, 2017.
Identifiers: LCCN 2016048799 (print) | LCCN 2016049292 (ebook) | ISBN 9781501102318 (hardcover) | ISBN 9781501102325 (trade pbk.) | ISBN 9781501102332 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Tillemann-Dick, Charity. | Sopranos (Singers)—United
States—Biography. | Lungs—Transplantation—Patients—United
States—Biography. | LCGFT: Autobiographies.
Classification: LCC ML420.T529 A3 2017 (print) | LCC ML420.T529 (ebook) | DDC
782.1092 [B]—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016048799
ISBN 978-1-5011-0231-8
ISBN 978-1-5011-0233-2 (ebook)