Sadie Bolte ushered in 2023 much like she'd done the previous year: by laying low.
Her only hope is that the next lap around the sun is better than the last.
"It has to be better," said the 36-year-old native of Columbus. "There's really no choice."
To be sure, 2022 tested her resiliency. Consider she spent New Year's Eve a year ago quarantined with COVID-19. And then a trip to the doctor revealed a vocal cord hemorrhage that was on the verge of bursting.
She was prohibited from all vocal cord activity — no speaking, no laughing and (considering the COVID) no coughing.
Say that again. Slowly, so it sinks in. No talking. No singing. Nothing. Most of us couldn't last five minutes with those kind of restrictions.
And most of us are not Bolte, a burgeoning stand-up comic and singer?
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Her voice is a necessary tool. Without it, she's a mime. And — admit it — no one this side of Paris likes mimes.
Somehow, Bolte kept her vow of silence. Like a Franciscan monk. She never cheated once, she claims. When she needed to communicate, her best friend Sarah Dorton did the talking.
She regained her speaking privileges, but in the fall, Brad Stewart, the founder of Zoolarious, the weekly Sunday-night comedy showcase at Zoo Bar, died suddenly from pancreatic cancer.
With his death, she had lost her mentor, cherished friend and the person responsible for getting her comedy career off the ground.
She co-hosted the final Zoolarious show and then served as one of the emcees for a memorial tribute to Stewart at the Bourbon Theatre a week later.
And then came her end-of-year punch to the face, the removal of a growth — thankfully the biopsy proved it to be noncancerous — but the cyst on her vocal cord was removed.
Now she's back in rehabilitation mode. The throat specialists gave her a clean bill of health last week, but now the work — months of physical and vocal therapy — begins.Â
"I'm not really sure what that all means, but I'm ready for it."
That's the magic of turning the calendar. We resolve to be better and are given the chance at a do-over, a fresh start. Tabula rasa.
Bolte enters 2023 obviously ready to turn the page on a rough year, but optimistic about what may be in store for her.
"I’ve had people approach me to join groups to do a music project," she said. "I have not been able to do that in many years because I haven’t had the vocal stamina because of that cyst."
In the past, her irregular vocal cords prevented her from the rigors — the regular rehearsals and nightly shows — of a music career.
But with the medical procedure comes promise. She's performed at the Lincoln's Star City Pride event in the Haymarket the last few years, as well as a children's cancer benefit, but has always been limited to a song or two.
She's looking forward to testing her pipes, to seeing for herself what she's capable of doing without the limitations of past health restrictions.
After a high school career that included countless musicals, Bolte has discovered the soulfulness of old-school rhythm and blues, thanks to countless hours listening at Zoo Bar and some of downtown's other musical clubs.
"I didn’t grow up on soul music, but when I started to listen to it in my late 20s and 30s, I loved it," she said. "I kind kind of grew up and realized how much I liked it."
That's Bolte's motivation for everything — the surgery and the pending therapy. And she can see blue skies ahead.
"We’re not quite out of the woods," she said. "I still can’t sing for another couple of months."
But she has been cleared to get on stage and do some stand-up — something she began doing after meeting Stewart while she was tending bar at Panic.
Stewart was immediately struck by her outgoing personality and sense of humor.
"He assumed that I was a comedian," she said. "I was too shy to actually do it. But he pushed me. He was the one who pushed me to do things like that."
Bolte did two open-mics before Stewart invited her to do a Zoolarious set in 2017. That set her on her way to regular gigs in the area.
With everything that has been going on in her life recently — from the surgery to the holidays — she hasn't had time to mourn the loss of her friend. She expects that to change in the coming weeks.
"When you stay busy, you don’t miss somebody as much as you think," she said. "But it hits you right in the gut at certain times. We’re at that time, the holidays are done and we’re into January and February. That’s what Zoolarious was especially good for.
"I miss that guy."