Mother’s Day has always been special for Rosalind Grant.
She was born on Mother’s Day, 73 years ago, and this weekend the Irvington jazz singer and bandleader will be celebrating her birthday (Saturday) and Mother’s Day with a special song in her heart for the team at Newark Beth Israel Medical Center.
She will finally be returning to the stage to perform for the first time since her emergency open-heart surgery at Moore’s Place in Jersey City on Sunday, May 8, from 7-10 p.m.
Hear Rosalind sing and talk about getting back on stage: https://vimeo.com/707013668/c2921e1036
Check out one of her pre-surgery performances at Liberty State Park (at 16:39): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rwTPautSy30
In 2020, Rosalind was about to release her first album, she was singing regularly at local nightclubs and private events, and then one night after a show, Rosalind got sick.
She could barely make it home and was vomiting profusely, so she decided to go to her local emergency room at Newark Beth Israel.
Although she didn’t present with the typical symptoms of a heart condition, the emergency medicine team did a CT scan and found a life-threatening tear in Rosalind’s aorta, the heart's main artery that carries oxygen from your heart to the rest of your body.
She had what is called an aortic dissection, and without emergency open-heart surgery, she only had a few days, perhaps even hours, to live.
Dr. Frederic Sardari, Vice-Chair of Cardiothoracic Surgery, and his team performed a complex 7-hour open-heart surgery to replace the torn section of her aorta.
Three weeks later, she left the hospital with a new lease on life. She lowered her blood pressure and is no longer taking blood pressure medications, she lost 50lbs and her goal is to lose 10lbs every month. She is no longer prediabetic, and she has been preparing for this Sunday’s performance at Moore’s Place.
In 2021 Rosalind released her first album, “I Just Found Out About Love.”
Rosalind has been singing since she was five years old, and she says it’s time to come back “music and singing is therapy for me.”