Hello dear community, today I want to share with you a collection of 40 vinyl records of opera and symphony music. It is not my intention to tell you the details of each record because there are so many. I see more interesting, the story of how these gems came to me.
In these vinyls a great work is gathered, on the part of their creators and all those musicians who made possible the condensation of their works.
There are days when one wishes to listen to one type of music and not another, so I follow my emotions and that desire that springs up in a given moment.
To feel this music is to raise the vibrations of your body and make memories fly. Together with a few glasses of wine, on a rainy, sunless or gray day, it is the ideal frame to crackle emotions.
When I started my third year of my medical career, I was placed in a hospital in the center of Havana. This was the place where we would stay for 4 more years, until the end of my residency stage.
I never forget the first patient I had to attend and follow for several weeks. She was a beautiful young woman of tall stature, long dark hair and a graceful body. Her expressive honey-colored eyes did not go unnoticed by the glances that crossed her room and the medical staff that met every morning as a group, together with the main professor of the ward of that service.
Laura was her name. She was born in a province in the center of the country and was passionate about playing the piano.
The first day I saw her, she was very embarrassed, shy and I had to get the words out of her; but when I read her medical history, I understood the reasons for her condition.
Vaginal hypoplasia was something that had never crossed my mind. It is a congenital problem that does not occur often. It is more noticeable in men than in women, and is the cause of great psychological disharmony.
It was a great contrast to her phenotype, an adult woman with a shapely figure, but she suffered from having a very small vagina, which made it impossible for her to have a normal sexual relationship.
As the days went by, I had time to talk to her every morning, and little by little a very fluid doctor-patient relationship was created.
She would tell me about her love for classical music, and how she liked to listen to her record player. I was able to meet her mother on several occasions, and learn many of her personal stories, and even her love affairs; which started out very well, and when her partners wanted to take the passion to another level, she reacted by ending the relationship.
He knew my taste in music, and it was a topic that was never overlooked in our talks.
Every person likes to be listened to, and even more so a patient. They prefer a doctor who shows sensitivity and humanism, and not a scholar who only talks to you with technicalities.
The definitive treatment in her case was surgical. Part of her intestine was removed, to make a vaginal canal, with a capacity that would allow her to have a penetrative sexual relationship.
Everything went perfectly in that intervention, and in the following days, she had to gradually dilate the duct to avoid its collapse, using some metallic objects that were sent to her.
One day I could not go to the hospital because I got sick. The next day, when she saw me, she showed great joy and her eyes shone with happiness. When it was my turn to leave the ward, there was a certain nostalgia in her eyes.
Another week passed and, after a satisfactory recovery, she was discharged. I was assigned another patient in the same bed, and so a different case would enter my days.
I never heard from Laura again, until one day I was sitting talking to my patient and felt my eyes being covered from behind. When I turned around, she was there, with that smile, gratitude reflected on her face and brimming with complicity and affection.
She told me to go down to the parking area, that she had a surprise for me in her father's car.
When I accompanied her, and after introducing me to her father, she opened the back door of the car, and there in a cardboard box were the 40 vinyl records that I share with you today.
I was not expecting such a gift, and I could not refuse the affection she showed me with that action.
Every time Laura came to the hospital for her evaluation, she looked for me all over the hospital. Every time she found me, she reflected that being who felt free and without barriers.
Time passed and I stopped seeing her. I never heard from her again. I am sure she must have created a family to share her beautiful essence, whether in Cuba or anywhere else in the world.
From her I will always remember this beautiful story; and every time I listen to and watch these records, I relive the experience we shared.
Laura, an eternal kiss, wherever you are.
Note: for reasons of medical ethics, I have not included his real name, nor the name of that hospital, nor details of the period I worked there.
Thank you, to those who read me.
Own photos. Camera: Sony DSC-HX20V
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Text by Andrés Brunet
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