Sylvia Ward Hodge

Twenty five years ago, on March 27, 1974, at 7a.m., I was on a stretcher being taken to an operating room in the Hospital of St. Raphael. My beloved cousin, the late Dr. Wilbur W. Esdaile, had made all the reservations for my entry, plus, and I quote him saying, “the best surgeon this side of Heaven will be operating- Dr. Pellecia.” I had entered the Hospital on March 25th. My students at Ridgefield High School made a special Novena for me on that day. I was in the operating room for seven hours and then in the recovery room for two hours. My cousin, Doris Esdaile Carre, R.N. came to the hospital at 8 a.m. and stayed all day with me. I am made to understand that when they brought me back to my room, she “jumped for joy” when the doctor told her I was “clean as a whistle.” I never had to take chemotherapy or radiation, not even an aspirin. I was in the hospital for 12 days, by Wilbur’s orders. I finally left the hospital and by the end of April, I was back teaching in Ridgefield. I finally retired in June 1988. I am now teaching private lessons in the music studios at the Whitneyville United Church of Christ. My courses are piano and both beginners and advanced music theory.

“All things are truly possible- only believe”