It's a dark and chilly winters afternoon thirteen days before Christmas when a tall, and skinny strange man wearing an over sized coat and a well worn pork pie hat enters Rosa's Diner. Tucked under his left arm he has a violin case and in his right hand, a small leather suitcase. The few regulars in Rosa's diner lift their gaze from their food and cautiously take a visual snapshot of the Stranger. Slowly and with what seems to be considerable effort, the man sits down at a table in the corner by the bay window, removes his hat, tucks the small suitcase under the table and with great gentleness places the violin case on a chair next to himself. Rosa tucks an errant strand of hair behind her ear, corrects her apron and walks up to the stranger. "-Welcome to Rosa's Diner, I am Rosa, what would you like order Sir?" The Stranger lifts his head and with a quiet voice orders a cup of black coffee. "-Anything to eat with that?" Rosa asks, "-We have the best pancakes this side of the Tamutha River" she adds. The man nods his head in an affirmative gesture, Rosa smiles in response then turns around and walks toward the kitchen.
The regulars turn back to their food and continue eating, and speaking in muted tones. Rosa is highly esteemed in this little town and if someone is accepted by Rosa, the rest of the town will follow suit.
The Stranger sips his coffee slowly and deliberately as if every sip offers a new taste sensation, the pancakes are cut into small measured pieces, each bite savoured and remembered. Rosa watches the man from behind the counter and can't help but wonder what kind of suffering this man may have endured, because Rosa knows and understands suffering. Her husband never returned from the war and her only beloved son is paralysed in both legs after a bad bout with polio.
"-Please, may I pay and also enquire if there may be somewhere to rent a room for a few nights?" the man asks Rosa. "-That will be three dollars Sir, and if you don't mind renting a small modest room, I have one here at the back of the diner, only five dollars a night and breakfast included," Rosa answers.
After settling the bill, Rosa shows the Stranger the room and he decides to rent it.
While putting up the Closed sign later that day, Rosa suddenly hears music coming from the backroom.
Quietly she walks to the room only to find Billy, her son, in his wheelchair already there. "Mum, listen, isn't this the most beautiful music you've ever heard" Billy whispers to Rosa. "Yes, son, it is" Rosa whispers back.
For the next eleven days, the Stranger comes in for coffee and pancakes every morning at eight am precise, but he no longer sits by himself because Billy always joins him. Billy who used to wolf down his pancakes, now cuts them into small pieces and instead of chattering, he eats in silence.
From the minute the Stranger invited Billy into his room and showed him the violin, the two of them seemed to establish an invisible heart to heart connection. Every night the Stranger teaches Billy how to play, and every night Billy falls asleep with a smile on his face. On Christmas eve morning, the Stranger doesn't come in to the diner for his breakfast. "Mum, where is Mr Rosenthal?" Billy asks Rosa anxiously.
"Excuse me, but can you all just manage without me while I just make sure Mr Rosenthal is alright" Rosa says to the customers in the diner and with Billy in tow she rushes to the backroom.
Rosa gently knocks on the door...no answer. "Mr Rosenthal, are you alright?" she asks. "Mr Rosenthal, Mr Rosenthal?" Billy ask desperately.
Rosa opens the door. Mr Rosenthal, the Stranger, is laying on top of his bed, his little leather suitcase packed, the violin case open with a piece of paper resting on top of the violin. Billy rolls his wheelchair to the bed with tears rolling down his face. He gently lifts Mr Rosenthal's right hand to his face and strokes his own cheek with it. Rosa picks up the piece of paper with shaking hands.
"Dear Billy and Mrs Rosa, I knew I had very few days left to live when I arrived here, but I didn't know that my last days would be filled with so much love and friendship. I have enjoyed every minute with you Billy and your mum, and the chance to share my music with a young soul again before leaving this earth, has given me more more joy than words can ever express. I am the last survivor of my family, so please accept this violin as a token of my sincere affection and may you treasure it as you learn to play it and make it your friend just as I have always done.
At last, I now leave to see my children and my beloved family again,
sincerely Joshua Rosenthal, Shalom"
Billy rolls his wheelchair to the violin, lifts it, then gently caresses it.
Rosa puts the note in her apron pocket, bends down and embraces her son, the chair, the violin, and begins to sob softly.
"Mum, what does Stradivarius mean, it says so inside the violin?" Billy asks.
(ps. A Stradivarius or Strad is one of the violins, cellos, and other stringed instruments built by members of the Stradivari (Stradivarius) family, during the 17th and 18th centuries. According to their reputation, the quality of their sound has defied attempts to explain or equal it, and to aquire one ..................requires bags of money.)
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