This afternoon I reconnected with Diane Amidon, who lives in nearby Raleigh, NC. She and I first became acquainted when we were both freshmen at USC School of Music—she was a soprano voice major, and I knew her then as Diane Rose.
I lost track of her after sophomore year and didn’t find out that she had transferred to the University of Hawaii until I saw her as the soprano soloist in the Lutheran Church of Honolulu choir at the rededication service after the building was remodeled. That was in 1974, after I finished graduate school and had moved to Hawaii. So it had been four years since I had last seen Diane at USC.
We renewed our friendship and I still remember helping her paint her kitchen a bright yellow, covering over old brown paint.
In June 1977, there were three weddings among LCH choir members: the first was Sandra Wagner (alto) to Joel Seavey; the second was Diane (soprano) to David Amidon (tenor); and the third was Carl Crosier and myself. Each wedding was increasingly more elaborate and complex! I played the organ for Diane and Dave’s wedding—and they moved away from Hawaii shortly thereafter.
The only other time I have seen Diane was when she and Dave celebrated their 25th wedding anniversary in 2002 and visited Hawaii, coming back to the Lutheran Church where they had married. Of course we had our 25th anniversary at the same time.
So today we met at the Duke University Chapel for Evensong, then went out to dinner along with my former student, Joey Fala, who played the organ (magnificently!) for the service. Diane now has a lay position in the Methodist church working with elders. Unfortunately Dave was working out of town and couldn’t join us. I hope Joey wasn’t too bored with our sharing of photos of children and grandchildren!
It was the weirdest feeling, knowing this woman throughout nearly my whole life, but only seeing her when we were young college students; then again as Middle Agers celebrating our 25th wedding anniversaries, and now as Senior Citizens—but both of us still feeling like teenagers!
Tomorrow night I am off to Amsterdam!
Here is the YouTube video of today’s Evensong.
I’m sure your playing at Diane’s wedding had nothing to do with her and her hubby moving shortly after (lol). Have fun in Amsterdam. Elithe and I were there in 2014 and it was a nice “canal” city with more than 500,000 bicycles. I enjoyed the various aromas, red light district (beautiful ladies… and no, I did not hire any), and canal tours. Very interesting place. Safe travels to you and I look froward to seeing you back home soon.