One of the basic rules of theatre is to keep the audience
slightly off balance – vary the presentation. Shakespeare alternates comic and
tragic scenes and some even argue that commercials on television can play the
same role. Not so sure about that – but certainly when I was teaching one of my
basic approaches was to keep switching topics and approaches so the young men
would never get complacent. So in approaching this end of the year Christmas
“What HAS Sheehan been doing?” letter, I thought a varied approach might be
interesting. 
So while generally chronological, there are some times when
I will focus on one activity, one event, one project, which may encompass a
longer chronological period. Like the motorcycle accident and the subsequent
results (“Motorcycle accident? WHAT Motorcycle accident?!?!?”) See? There might
even be some surprises. (Of course, the careful reader might also notice that
perhaps God is following the same philosophy with respect to MY life – the
Three Person of the Trinity saying to one another, “Let’s keep Sheehan off
balance.”) And some of the major moments have longer and more detailed stories
earlier in the blog.
Starting in January but continuing through May, I did a lot of
talks on behalf of the Xavier Society for the Blind at Rotary Clubs, the
Optimist Club, Kiwanis Clubs, Knights of Columbus meetings, high schools –
anywhere there was a group who wanted a speaker. I talk about being blind, the
basic of some of the training that is available, what the Xavier Society does
and anything else that was relevant. It was always fun when I would pull up in
a car, get out, take my long white cane out of the back seat and head off down
the block. Or walking up to a car with my cane, put the cane in the back seat and
driving off. More than once I saw people with very puzzled looks.
But also more than once I had someone come up to me to tell
me that they had a cousin, a sister, a friend, someone they knew who was blind
or going blind or with limited vision and didn’t know where to turn. We’ve only
been around since 1900, and we’ve done a mailing to every single parish in the
United States and I regularly hear “Gee, I never knew you existed!” (My comment
to myself at those moments is not recorded.)
January was the month
when Tony Amato died, founded and director of the Amato Opera. I went out to
his funeral, and ended up delivering the homily. I had the pleasure of
attending a concert at Carnegie Hall at which Jessica Bachicha0 sang, a
gorgeous singer (and a gorgeous young woman) I had met through the NFB. Oh yes,
she’s blind – but doesn’t really have anything to do with her gorgeous singing.
And as I was looking through the calendar for last year, I realized – starting
in January – that I had a LOT of friends singing and acting and appearing in
stuff.
February I kept
on doing talks to groups, the Notre Dame of NY held our annual Universal Notre
Dame Night at the Union Leaguer Club, Catholic War Veterans had their chapter
convention and a dinner (my memory is that I have sung a song or two), and the
President’s Dinner at the New York Athletic Club which is always a major event.
But without contest, the highlight of the month was going to Rome for the
installation of new Cardinals, and I knew two of them – Tim Dolan of New York,
and Ed O’Brien of Baltimore and then Rome, who was head of the Military
Archdiocese when I was a chaplain at Kwajalein, so technically he was my boss.
Earlier in this blog there is a longer telling of that trip, which was very
moving.
 |
| Jean French and May Moss at a Thanksgiving celebration |
March – Usually March has St. Patrick’s Day as the
major focus, and since I’ve been back, that includes marching in the parade.
This year I did it twice. I marched with the Catholic War Veterans, and since
the parade focused on honoring vets, we were near the front. As we neared the
end of the march, I peeled off, went back down to 44th Street,
changed my jacket and hat, and march the route again with the Notre Dame Club
of NY. Rob French was perhaps my best friend in my life, and he died when I was
in Nigeria. His mother was a great friend, and spent the last several years
living with her other son in California. She died, and there was a memorial
service for her down in Princeton. The Board of the Xavier Society for the
Blind had been talking about making some major changes, and in March we had
several meetings with some people at Fordham
who helped guide us with personnel details.
 |
| Les Lieber celebrates 100 years |
I also sometimes have been singing
with the Jazz at Noon group, and the leader and founder of that group, Les
Lieber, celebrated his birthday party in
March. His 100th birthday and at the 3-hour party, Les played for
most of the afternoon. And the adjutant of our American Legion post and a good friend,
Joel Viders, died and I was asked to do the funeral. Joel was Jewish, his wife
is Catholic, so at the funeral parlor I did a service that was mostly Jewish,
in Hebrew and English, and at the cemetery I did a more Catholic service. And
finally, I spent several days in Atlanta ,
visiting another old friend. I hadn’t
been back to Atlanta since I worked there doing dinner theatre, and it was a
great trip. I even got to sing with a church choir in rehearsal.
April of 2012
included Easter celebrations at St. Malachy’s, the Actors Chapel, and a meeting
in Baltimore at the National Federation of the Blind in Baltimore. I also got
to go to a ball game when I was in Baltimore. The Orioles lost but it was a
good game. I got to see Death of A Salesman with a godson who is building a
life in theatre as a dramaturg (He’s currently studying in Ireland). The
national commander of the American Legion was at a special dinner at the NY
Athletic Club – he had spent half a day at the XSB before he took the office so
he knows me. Blue Hill Troupe did a production of Utopia Limited, a production
that many G&S fans have never seen. I was asked to step in at the last
minute and organize the ushers and run the house, which I did, I sang and
invoked at the anniversary dinner for the Women’s National Republic Club and
got to see a dress rehearsal of an opera at the Met. Last year I gave the
invocation at the Kelly Cares Foundation dinner at the Waldorf, with Lou Holtz,
Ara Parseghian, Regis Philbin and of course, Coach Kelly. They asked me again
this year but I had already accepted an invitation from the Navy League for the
same evening. Fortunately the two events were both at the Waldorf, so I checked
the schedule, prayed for Kelly Cares and then headed up to the Starlight Room
for event #2. At the NY Athletic we had an event hosting both of the new
cardinals, which I had a small hand in helping put together, and I spent some
time during the month alerting some people of what we were planning at the XSB.
May – May was
truly a month of lights and shadows. The great shadow was telling people their
jobs were going to cease to exist. Six of them had 134 years of service
together. We also made public the decision to sell the building and decided on
a real estate agent. A friend took me to see ONCE as a birthday gift, and there
were celebrations at Princeton Day School, the Friendly Sons of St. Patrick,
and the Christopher Awards ceremony, where I sang for a bit and got to kiss the
woman who gave Elvis his first on screen kiss. (She is now a nun!)
 |
| Yes, this is the woman who gave Elvis his first on-screen kiss |
I went back
to Rome, to give a paper at a Vatican
Conference in Rome about the blind. I also had the opportunity to present a
two-volume leather-covered braille edition of the Gospels to the Holy Father.
.jpg)
I was invited to preside at a wedding in Newport Rhode Island over
Memorial Day weekend, and it was a truly wonderful event, with delightful
people, a gorgeous hotel (complete with a porch where one could smoke a cigar
and a rehearsal dinner cruise and a small chapel for the wedding itself.)
June – Several
friends died in June, and I got to take a tour of a cruise ship with a group of
blind people, looking at the ship and how a blind person gets about. I
continued to help out at St. Malachy’s, the Actors’ Chapel, and I went down to
Baltimore for a meeting at the National Federation of the Blind (and got to
sneak in a game at the ball park).
 |
| Post Commander Sean Powers at the flag retirement |
 |
| The Biker Priest |
I took part in the annual flag retirement
ceremony with the American Legion, and since I was hoping to ride with the
Legion Riders to the national convention, I thought I would be wise and prudent
and smart and take a couple of lessons to sharpen up old motorcycle skills. So
I signed up for a series of lessons, and on the first day, while practicing
U-turns, I got going a little fast which means I was a little wide and I hit
the curb. Off the bike and onto my shoulder, where, as a later MRI pointed out,
I tore ligaments and tendons. I spent the rest of the day at the emergency
room, discovering whole new dimensions of pain and the wonders of morphine. Surgery
was scheduled for later in July, and on June 28 I was off to Dallas for the
national convention of the National Federation of the Blind. I was wearing a
sling, which meant I got preferential treatment in seating but special
attention at airport security.
The convention is one of the highlights of each year, three
thousand blind people of all ages coming together to share their experiences
and their wisdom and have great fun. It’s a marvelous experience and I look
forward to it every year. There was a wonderful opening ceremony put together
by the National Association of Blind Veterans,
and I was invited to address the whole convention.
July – I left
Dallas and headed up to Louisville for the national convention of the American
Council of the Blind. It too is a national organization, but has a different
character, a different personality. I celebrated Mass for the Catholics, sang
in the Talent Show and was the head spotter for the auction. I got to tour the
American Printing House for the Blind, and met a whole bunch of fascinating
people. When I returned I had my surgery, and spent the next six weeks sleeping
in a chair, wearing a sling and learning how much I use my right hand. One of
our great Jesuits and a good friend died, and I had an interview on WOR radio.
August – Because
of the surgery I had to miss the national convention for the Catholic War
Veterans, but I was able to go to Cape Cod for the memorial service for the
daughter of one of my oldest and dearest friends. I was invited to sing in the
American premiere of a Donizetti opera (an opportunity I would have had to
decline if I had not had the accident) and rehearsals started. A few more friends
died and I started physical therapy, three times a week most weeks, 90 minutes
a shot.
September – I
seem to be talking about death more than usual, and a friend who was a poet and
who ran poetry workshops made it to 96 and her memorial service was a gathering
of friends and poets. I held a Blue Sky Day with the Xavier Society staff, where we got to explore possibilities and
ways to proceed into the future.
October – October
was filled with rehearsals for the opera, Olivo, and then there was this storm.
We had the first weekend of performances, and just got the last matinee in
before the transport systems closed. We were closed for a week, weathering the
storm, and trying to figure out what comes next. We lost our phone and internet
connections, and as of this writing in January we still don’t have them back.
At the residence, on 83rd Street, there were no signs of the size of the storms
– if it weren’t for the television and Facebook we probably wouldn’t have known
anything was going on.
November – Recovering
from Sandy, the Veterans Day parade, (no motorcycle this year) and I got to
concelebrate a funeral on Staten Island for a vet who died during the storm.
The Catholic War Veterans have a promise that no vet will lack for a proper
burial and we have arrangements with funeral parlors and cemeteries who have
promised to donate their services and this was another in that series. I was
invited to the Inner City Scholarship Lunch, celebrating a wonderful program
that helps inner city students. The ACB State convention was cancelled because
of the storm but the NFB state convention went off and I attended that. Two
friends from England came over for a football game – yup, flew over, went to
the stadium, we met for a lovely dinner and they flew back the next day. A
friend who is a producer got me a ticket for Dead Accounts, and since things were getting dull, I had a tooth
pulled. We had a very good meeting with Princeton Theological Seminary that may
chart a whole new direction for the Xavier Society for the Blind, I gave the
invocation for the Naval War College Foundation, one of the former crew from
the Enterprise died, and the Notre Dame Club sponsored the Hesburgh lecture.
December – We
started December with a party at the Xavier Society to celebrate our
volunteers. We had Mass on the second floor and a buffet lunch and open house
for four hours. 
I celebrated Mass at St. Patrick’s Cathedral on the feast of
St. Lucy, patron of the blind, complete with a young lady with a headdress of
candles, as is the tradition in many Scandinavian countries.
I sang at a post
Baptism party and managed to survive the Christmas season. Although I haven’t
said Mass at St. Malachy’s since the accident, I did get to celebrate at the
Actor’s Home in Englewood the last Sunday before Christmas. Some friends from
California were in town and we had a traditional lunch at a Cajun restaurant,
and I saw out the New Year at the New York Athletic Club, watching from a
balcony on the 17th floor the crowds down 7th Avenue and
the fireworks in Central Park. A friend gave me a television set as a Christmas
present, and so I suddenly have a working tv in my room – which is kind of neat
on the one hand, and really depressing, as I am reminded how few shows there
are worth watching.
As the year ends I am still going to physical therapy three
times a week, working out and being stretched and doing lots of exercises in
between and while “better” is not always “good,” I am definitely getting
better. The building sale is moving forward and we hope to have a closing on or
before March 5th. We have exciting plans for the Xavier Society for
the Blind in the next several years, and if I could only win the Lottery….
HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!
