An Irish Christmas presented December 8, 2012 at Sacred Heart University, Fairfield, CT USA. Performers included Ciaran Sheehan, Eilin O’Dea, John Shea, Jerry O’Sullivan, and The John Whelan Band. I’m not going to give a review other than to say the evening was highly spirited filled with enchantment of the coming holidays. Absolutely smashing well done concert. Maybe that is a somewhat review.
My thoughts here are aimed at Christel Rice Astin (C&Fer) who is a member of The John Whelan Band playing flute and whistle. I mentioned in earlier threads related to SuperStorm Sandy 2012 that I wasn’t going to comment further about Christel’s complete loss of entire household, family mementos, recording equipment, and cases of CDs she sells to support the family. I still am not going to comment further as you can read Christel’s documentation of events from the storm to the present on Facebook http://www.christelrice.com/
I want to focus my comments on Christel. I personally met Christel last night after the concert for the first time. I originally met Christel here on C&F with only avatar recognition. Everyone knows what that’s like… avatars (if you have one). What a wonderful human being Christel is. I want everyone to know that Christel stood on that stage smiling, cheerfully playing her heart and soul out the entire evening as if nothing had ever happened, nothing is wrong, it doesn’t matter I no longer have a home for the family and everything is ok. Christel is the consummate professional musician, wife, mother of two very young children, and now I can say personal friend. Ever since the storm, Christel has been involved daily with relief efforts to others there in the Rockaways, while all along trying to make sense of and figure out how to rebuild her’s and the family’s lives from scratch. I can’t even imagine “from scratch”, as I know others have done it, and some more than once. Unbelieveable.
Christel is quite a lady, compassionate, and all I’m asking everyone here is to keep Christel in your thoughts. 
