New York Today: Alone in an Empty City

Re:Elder, I took away something different from the Obituary than you ; a consumate professional who made a difference, who had a human side she shared and love she gave. My deepest condolences to her family.

Yes, a lot of New Yorkers don’t go away for the holidays, but it you go out into the streets and to the holiday fairs you’ll notice less and less people. For example, me and my wife used to love going to the cinema on Christmas since the crowds were thinner, and quieter, and it was more enjoyable. On another note we always noticed the plaques on the benches in Central Park and not just on quiet holiday weekends and thought we’d love to have one for our dog who loved romping during off leash hours. I miss our city but don’t miss city life. At all. Merry Christmas and happy holidays to all.

I'm so sorry for your loss. I hope you have a peaceful, warm holiday.

This beautiful girl is DEFINITELY not alone! We all love her to pieces and we take very good care of her!

stacey, my thought too. Alexandra ~ thank you for your writing. Sending best wishes & hope your holiday is spent however makes you content.

On the other hand, ShirleyW, for those of us who grew up in New York City and whose parents were born here (and grandparents arrived as so many did as youngsters and went straight to work), we are never really alone, and the city is never quiet. Everywhere we go, we see ghosts of loved ones and of our younger selves. Walk near Lord & Taylor, and there's my dad happily doing his Christmas shopping; pass the old block, and there are Dad and my mother walking hand in hand. Over there in Williamsburg, near South Fifth Street, my late aunt is still 14 years old and worrying that her old-fashioned father saw her walking home from school with a boy. Her elder sister was voted Prettiest Girl in Eastern District High School. Her brother, home from war in the Philippines, is still suffering from malaria, and their landlord, a doctor, is sitting up all night during the worst phase of the illness to pull him through. Who can pass through Williamsburg and not see them through the crowds and new glass condos going up? Near my old public school, I always hear, with alarm, my mother's friend call out from a butter and egg truck, "Put on your sweater!" and drive away, and my school chum Jacky say, in awe, "Boy, your mom has spies everywhere." Could it have been over 55 years ago? And then the inevitable, election-year debate, loud as anything: "Jesus, you'd vote for Mickey Mouse if he was a Democrat!" New York City lonely and quiet? Not for an instant.

"The names on the familiar and beloved green wooden park benches in Central Park made me feel chills." Yes, I always like looking at plaques on benches wherever I am. But I do not feel "chills" -- I feel gratitude and kinship. In Central Park, the New York Botanical Garden, and the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, and along, say, the Marginal Way in Ogunquit, and in myriad other spots, names of departed family members and friends, or even names of those still alive but who love those places and want to make a difference, give us the happy knowledge that people care; and that can give us only a sense of warmth. (For the cynics out there who will opine that money is donated just for the glory of an engraved name on a brass plaque: Think again.) Thank goodness for them.

I remember those days too. I lived in a waterfront neighborhood in Brooklyn...cheap, seedy and rather empty. Now it is gentrified, overpopulated/overcrowded and very expensive. Only in our memories can we go home again.