Emily Kessler, a 97-year-old Holocaust survivor from Ukraine, plays music for herself. From inside her apartment on the Upper West Side, she practices her mandolin and sings folk songs as a means to bring herself joy and remember a time before the war, when she was with her family. 
 
 “We were singing,” she says of her childhood. “My mother, my father. My mother had a voice that when someone heard [it], they thought the radio was playing.” 
 
 Kessler is her own humble talent, a soulful voice packed in her petite frame. When she plays for audiences, they’ve typically been adult groups at community centers. But on Monday night, Kessler is slated to make her debut at Lincoln Center’s Avery Fisher Hall, giving a solo performance to coincide with a fund-raising dinner held by the Blue Card, a nonprofit that offers aid to Holocaust survivors. The performance is part of her incredible odyssey that started when she was a widowed teenager, running and hiding from the Nazis with a baby son and adopted daughter. Masha Pearl, executive director of Blue Card, says the group chose Kessler because her display of personal strength and commitment to music has been an inspiration for the group. "She's able to channel something very painful and deep," Pearl said. 
 
 When the Nazis invaded Ukraine in the summer of 1941, Kessler’s husband, a journalist, went to fight them and never came home. Before her family was rounded up and taken to concentration camps, Kessler says she watched the Nazis shoot her brother and later watched S.S. soldiers kill her mother and father. Widowed with a young child, Kessler survived the war through a combination of extraordinary grit, the kindness of strangers, fake documentation papers, and several years roaming between homes and sleeping in attics and parks to avoid the police or S.S. officers. Back then, she had blonde hair, the bluest eyes, a Ukrainian surname, and lied about her Jewish roots to survive. 
 
 “They ask me, ‘Are you Jewish? Are you Juden?’ I say I am not,” Kessler recalls of one of many encounters with Nazi soldiers. Many memories are so disturbing, she prefers to keep them to herself. 
 
 “I lost my mind,” she says. “I didn’t understand [anything]. My fear took away my mind. I wanted to go only home. Until now, I don’t how I survived with children, without food.” 
 
 Through fake papers, Kessler was able to avoid the camps. Eventually, she made her way with scores of other refugees to New York, where she has rediscovered the mandolin. She sings in Yiddish and Russian and plays scores of ballads and folk songs. Her typical audiences are small groups of seniors. Lincoln Center’s Avery Fisher Hall, home of the New York Philharmonic, has nearly 3,000 seats. 
 
 Photo: Abraham Riesman 
 
 Kessler is not nervous. She has her outfit, a black blouse and skirt, prepared. She’s also packed wooden blocks she uses as foot rests and to support her mandolin on her lap. She has six songs prepared, and she’s been practicing, but she’s also brought lyrics to a few more of her favorites, just in case the crowd at Lincoln Center asks to hear more of her music. 
 
 “It makes you forget the bitterness of the life, the unfairness, and the cruelty of everything,” she says of music. “Music is not cruel. It’s always peace and love.” ||||| ST. PETERSBURG — It was Wednesday afternoon and the exhausted dad-to-be had gone home to rest and recharge. Angel Quiles thought about his pregnant wife and the two weeks she had lain unconscious but fighting. He thought about the Oct. 15 accident that got her there, when a tow truck slammed into Jenny Noemi Quiles as she walked to a doctor's appointment for their baby. 
 
 He thought about the relief he felt when she finally woke up and how, for now, their little girl was safe in his wife's womb. 
 
 Then he got the call: Angel Noemi Quiles — mom and dad had already chosen a name — was on the way. A month early. 
 
 Angel Quiles, 35, rushed from the couple's home in Tampa to Bayfront Health St. Petersburg, where his wife was hospitalized. 
 
 He pleaded with the doctors to postpone the delivery until his arrival. When the C-section succeeded, everyone in the delivery room cheered and he saw his healthy, 6-pound baby girl, Quiles couldn't help but think: "Out of all the negativity, finally something positive." 
 
 Now, Quiles said, he'll turn his attention back to his wife, who remains in critical condition. 
 
 Jenny Quiles, 36, suffered a traumatic brain injury when she was hit while crossing First Avenue N near Williams Park. Just before the impact, she reportedly turned her body to shield her womb. 
 
 "When Jenny gets out of this," her husband said, "I'm going to thank her." 
 
 He said that just days before his wife gave birth to what her doctor called a miracle baby, she rustled awake at the sound of his voice. Jenny reached for him, he said, and pulled him close as if she was trying to tell him something. Angel believes his wife was trying to say the baby was on her way, because just days later, Jenny went into labor. 
 
 Her contractions started about 4 p.m. Wednesday, said her doctor, Jennifer R. Gilby, an obstetrician/gynecologist at Women's Care Florida. Gilby said the decision was made to deliver the baby by C-section after consultation with Quiles' doctors at Bayfront. 
 
 Quiles gave birth about four hours later. 
 
 The baby, Gilby said, "is just thriving and doing well. She's on an excellent first step into this world, and I think she's going to do great." 
 
 Angel Noemi Quiles' due date was Dec. 1. She was being cared for Thursday in the neonatal intensive care unit at All Children's Hospital Johns Hopkins Medicine. 
 
 Gilby said she has been Quiles' doctor for years, dating to when Quiles' 12-year-old son was born. 
 
 She said Quiles was in stable condition, with her eyes open and responding to stimuli. 
 
 "She's improving every day," Gilby said. "I think now that she doesn't have to support a whole second entity, hopefully we'll see some improvements, as well. … In the last 48 hours, she's really become a lot more responsive than she was." 
 
 According to St. Petersburg police, Shaun Carlton Downing, 27, of St. Petersburg was turning left onto First Avenue N on a yellow light when the accident occurred. The right front corner of his 2011 Dodge tow truck, owned by A-1 Towing, struck Quiles and threw her to the pavement. 
 
 Police spokesman Mike Puetz said a preliminary investigation shows that, while Downing was likely at fault in the crash, he may just receive a civil infraction. He was not apparently drunk or speeding, and he had a valid license. 
 
 "There's nothing here that rises to a criminal act on his part," Puetz said. 
 
 Angel Quiles said he hopes the attention that his wife's accident is receiving will raise awareness about pedestrian safety. 
 
 He said his wife works for Interstate Transport, a logistics and freight-shipping company in St. Petersburg. She loves baseball and enjoys exercising. And she wanted a baby girl more than anything, said Angel, a lawn-maintenance company supervisor. 
 
 The accident and early delivery mean the family is less than prepared to take home a newborn, Angel said. Gilby and the couple's church are hosting two separate baby showers for them in November, because they did not get to have one before the child arrived. 
 
 On Thursday, Angel said he wanted to get the baby, who they'll call Emi, in the arms of her mother as soon as possible. Jenny had not yet held her little girl. 
 
 Later in the evening, he got to feed the child her first bottle and change her diaper. 
 
 "I want my wife to be normal because she wanted this so bad," he said. "I want Jenny to see the baby. Hopefully, that will snap her out of this. I need her back in my life. 
 
 "My hope is to see Jenny hold her baby girl and do what moms do best." 
 
 Times researcher Caryn Baird and staff writer Zachary T. Sampson contributed to this report.
– A comatose woman who roused to deliver her baby and a Holocaust survivor who gets a special night are among the week's most uplifting stories: Woman Emerges From Coma, Delivers Baby: Jenny Quiles was 33 weeks pregnant when she was hit by a truck as she crossed the street. Two weeks later, the Florida woman emerged from a coma, and on Wednesday, she began having contractions. Four hours later, she gave birth to a "miracle" baby girl. Her daughter is fine, while Quiles is in critical condition but "improving every day," says her doctor. Holocaust Survivor to Play Lincoln Center: A musician makes her solo debut in a Lincoln Center concert next week, but it's a safe bet you've never heard of her. Emily Kessler, a 97-year-old Holocaust survivor who now lives in New York City, will strum her mandolin and sing folk songs to help raise money for other survivors. She was picked for her amazing story of bravery as a teen evading the Nazis. Widower's Dinner Date: Photo of Late Wife: Determined not to forget his true love after her death five years ago, an elderly man has been bringing along a photo of her during his outings to a California burger joint. Patrons have noticed, and photos of the loving husband have gone viral. Off-Duty Cop Finds $120K, Returns It to Owner: It could have been easy money. But when an off-duty sergeant with the California Highway Patrol found two bags on the road stuffed with $120,000 in cash, she reported the find instead of helping herself. Turns out, it was apparently someone's life savings. University's Plan: Help Sex Slavery Survivors: A Christian university in California has launched what it says is a first-of-its-kind scholarship to help survivors of sex trafficking start new lives. Point Loma Nazarene University has started a crowdfunding campaign and a longer-term donation page. Click for more uplifting stories.