Wonderful States

Annemarie Wiesner should be alive today.

She should have celebrated Thanksgiving with her family like so many of us did on Thursday and she should be looking forward to the holidays and the start of a new year.

But that’s not going to happen.

Annemarie Wiesner, 72, was struck and killed by a hit-and-run driver on Nov. 16 as she was crossing the street with a shopping cart. She was pronounced dead at the scene.

The accident happened at Marine Avenue and 96th Street, which is a short distance from me and just a block away from my sister’s house.

She was one of three people killed by hit and run drivers in New York City in a 24-hour period.

Local news reports noted how Marine Avenue goes on for several blocks without traffic lights, speed bumps, stop signs or anything else to slow down the maniacs that tear through this neighborhood like characters straight out of “Mad Max.”

I can hear them at night on the Belt Parkway, along Shore Road and other streets in this neighborhood and I often think “one of these days somebody is going to get killed.”

I never knew Annmarie Wiesner, but after reading about her online I so dearly wish I had.

An immigrant from Switzerland, she moved here in the 1980s and studied at the New England Conservatory of Music.

Her LinkedIn page describes her as an “independent music professional” and her experience includes “violinist, singer, composer and improvisor.”

I found one friend online who talked about traveling to California with her several years ago to perform.

“I always wanted to play violin from when I was a baby,” Wiesner said in a 2012 interview with Timeout New York. “I was in Switzerland, and I went to the Conservatory in Zurich. I really liked to improvise, but in those days, they didn’t let you. The Conservatory found out I was improvising during a performance and almost kicked me out.”

When asked about her age, Wiesner said “whenever I play, I feel like I’m getting younger.”

“Also, I do dance meditation,” she said. “You can go into very wonderful states that way.”

Wiesner told Time Out that she had a band called “AW Flextet, because it’s flexible in size, style and media.”

“I’m also making music for a DVD of a technique called Jin Shin Jyutsu, a healing practice that’s older than acupuncture,” she said.

Frequencies and Vibrations

My aunt first told me Jin Shin Jyustu several years ago, and even though I have only limited experience with the practice, I can attest to its effectiveness.

“The whole world is just frequencies and vibrations, so when we use those better, we can improve our quality of life,” Wiesner said in the interview. “This man did research where he photographed molecules of water after he said something nice to them or played nice music. Or he would say something ugly or play some bad-vibration music.”

“The good-vibration water molecules looked totally different from the bad-vibration ones,” she said.

And now this talented, brilliant woman, this grandmother, is gone, her life ended so brutally.

What makes this even worse is that her killer has, so far, escaped punishment.

One of Annmarie Wiesner’s friends told CBS News that she hopes the driver turns himself in, but I’m not holding out much hope for that to happen.

Anyone capable of running down an elderly woman without stopping probably doesn’t do much in the way of soul-searching.

When I think about this woman, I am reminded of the line from Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mocking Bird, which tells us that “mockingbirds don’t do one thing but make music for us to enjoy.”

“They don’t eat up people’s gardens, don’t nest in corncribs, they don’t do one thing but sing their hearts out for us,” one character says. “That’s why it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird.”

Annmarie Wiesner’s death is a sin and I feel cheated for not knowing when she was in this world. I’m furious that her life was so violently cut short.

And I’m also fearful, to be honest. I worry about my loved ones and myself as we go out in this world where life doesn’t seem to be worth a damn thing.

But we have to keep making music, keep creating beautiful frequencies and vibrations.

Maybe someday we’ll get it right.