Robert Hobsetter - 1944
One of Diana's classmates at the Eastman School of Music was Robert Hobsetter or, as he liked to be called back in those days, "Hob." The last time they saw each other was in 1946 in downtown Rochester; a chance encounter.
By 2004, although Diana had occasionally mentioned Hob, his name only came up perhaps once every decade or so. Also by 2004, among Diana's spare-time pursuits was playing our electronic Yamaha Clavinova which she named "Clara" (after Mark Twain's daughter and widow of Ossip Gabrilowitsch)
Pieces she would practice (still on the rack as these words are typed in April of 2018) include the Fifth Sonatina by Scriabin, Ravel's La Valse (transcribed from the orchestral version by the composer) both versions of the Brahms Presto based upon Bach and, the Busoini edition of the Two- and Three-Part Inventions.
One summer morning in 2004 while leafing through the Inventions, Diana happened upon a bookmark (notes she took in 1941) at page 50 when her pencil note in the upper left corner prompted her to say, "I wonder if Hob is still alive." That afternoon while at Stanford she did a quick Google search and, within a half hour, was speaking again with her old friend for the first time in almost six decades.
He said that his phone was being repaired and suggested, before they converse again, they write synopses of what they had done since their last encounter.
That is how her 20 page letter came to be written.