It's been a lot of euphoria and excitement in the past week after getting my offer, and it's been somewhat expensive as well, as I've had to buy dinner for my friends....but there's been something more sobering as well.

In September last year, Prof Miller, one of my favourite professors, suffered a stroke. I didn't realise this, apart from the fact that he wasn't replying to my emails (he is a baritone, and I was supposed to accompany him sometime in the future). I was later emailed by another supervisor about this bad news.

I called him soon after, and I was pleasantly surprised that he could still manage to pick up his phone, which I couldn't take for granted considering that he's recovering from a stroke. He was talking quite slowly, but was still lucid and conversant. I was very happy to talk to him again, and he was still very concerned about my PhD applications, and was endeavouring to fill in an online reference letter form which I had requested him to do before I knew he'd had a stroke. He told me he was having difficulty with filling in the form from his impairment, but he was determined to fill it in for me.

I later saw him at the chamber music club recital where I was performing. He was more stiff and expressionless than before, and he mentioned that functioning with half a brain wasn't as good as functioning with a full brain. At the time, I was rushing to prepare for my recital, so I didn't get to talk much to him (I played terribly, by the way...). I was observing him listening to the other performers, and it was to my great relief that he still seemed to be able to enjoy the music.

In a later phone conversation, I learned that he had partial loss of motor function to the left side of his body, and that he was suffering from short-term memory loss. He was still very eager to talk about music, and he could still talk about the Bach that I played at the recital. He's trying to regain his singing ability which he'd momentarily lost after the stroke, and he asked me when we could next rehearse the songs.

It's quite a busy time for me these days, with my project and studies, but I think I will find some time to learn the music to accompany him.