<<  -- 7 --  Grahame Ainge    WITH CALLAS IN MIND

On both occasions visiting New York we have taken the red, open top, double-decker sightseeing buses; an informative and leisurely way of getting about whilst seeing the city with wisecracking real New York guides providing the on-board entertainment. The Uptown route goes past both the hotel where Caruso lived and the hospital where Maria was born. We pulled our coats tighter around us and our collars up to protect us from the raw October weather on the top deck; such a contrast to the balmy days of October 2001. As we approached a grey but impressive building the guide pointed out the hotel where 'the famous Caruso' lived but as we passed the hospital there was not a word of Maria's birthplace. We were not surprised.

Alighting straight afterwards near the north end of Central Park it was a short walk to the other side of Fifth Avenue and back to the small hospital on the corner of 105th Street which at the time was shrouded on the ground floor with scaffolding and plastic sheeting. We made our way up the curved paved entrance way to the front door. Over the entrance was a canopy bearing the name Terence Cardinal Cooke Health Centre and a stone figure of the Madonna stood on the neat little lawn outside.

At that moment a nurse was leaving and asked if we needed help. We asked if the building had been called the Flower Hospital and as she confirmed this we added, 'Maria Callas was born here wasn't she?'

Smiling and without a second thought, she replied, 'Oh yes'. We smiled back, so pleased to discover someone who recognised Maria's roots in the City.

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