New York - Part 3

On Monday Susan, Bill, Barb and I all got ourselves ready, grabbed a cab in front of the hotel and made our way toward Memorial Sloan-Kettering where I was scheduled to meet with the doctor.

Getting a cab in front of the hotel is as easy as it gets. Cabs troll in front of the hotel just looking for any hotel guest that needs a ride. Cabbies "live" in their cabs and apparently only take showers or baths occasionally. So each cab is filled with the fragrant aroma of the cabbie himself.

Again there was a language barrier. But the cabbie seemed to recognize something we said and took off.

Sloan-Kettering is actually a series of buildings in one general area. There is an overall hospital, and there are individual buildings for different types of cancer. We were looking for a specific building that was solely for kidney and testicular cancers. The cabbie dropped us somewhere in the middle of the Sloan-Kettering complex of buildings. We knew we were close. But we were lost.

One of Susan's great talents for the group was as our spokesperson. She was the representative of our group to New York City. We stumbled about, looking aimlessly around for our destination, when Susan took charge.

A lady passed Susan and she tapped her on the shoulder and asked her if she knew where Sloan-Kettering was. The lady turned around, startled looking, and she wasn't a lady at all. It was Mick Jagger!

Now it wasn't actually Mick Jagger. But it was the closest thing to Mick Jagger I have ever seen, and it obviously was no accident. The picture I cannnot get out of my head is Susan and Mick Jagger both seeing each other for the first time. Susan was startled at the site of Mick, with good reason. Mick was startled with Susan because Sloan-Kettering was just across the street and because you're not really supposed to talk to people on New York City streets.

That meeting is an image that will be locked in my brain forever. I wish I could share it with you. Every time I think of it I get the biggest smile. It's the highlight of my trip. Hey, I'm a simple guy.

Mick had shown us the way. We crossed one street and there was the Sloan-Kettering building where we needed to be.

(Part 4 Tomorrow) Overall Sloan-Kettering Review