These little town blues
Well, New York survived me. I had a great time, the highlights of which were definitely going to Yankee Stadium and watching the Bronx Bombers hold on against the White Sox for a 6-5 win, walking the Brooklyn Bridge into Manhattan from Brooklyn Heights and having a fabulous late night dinner in Little Italy (I highly recommend Fratelli) and then coffee and Bomba (if you have to ask, well, seriously...) across the street at a dessert place.
More details about this past weekend's trip to come but let me just say that the Magnolia Bakery WAS successfully visited and I still, at last count, have seven darling cupcakes left to prove it. Hopefully, photos from my new digital camera will also soon upload. Further proof of big fun.
My neighbor, my friend
"Lena's gone."
That's how my neighbor, Melissa, told me that our across the street neighbor - our good friend Lena - had passed away.
Melissa, much better friends with Lena than I ever had the chance to be, wasn't crying. She was too much in shock.
Lena, Cristian and the baby, Ani, had left for Colombia on my birthday, June 19, and were to return home July 19. The short version of what happened is that Lena had wanted breast augmentation and was having it done while vacationing in Colombia. During the operation, something went wrong and instead of being brought out from under anesthesia and the remainder of the procedure being stopped, Lena was given more anesthesia. This was a fatal mistake. Lena suffered a series of strokes and was put on life support. She suffered a final, massive stroke Friday morning and was removed from the machines. She's been gone now for only a little more than 24 hours.
"I feel like this is a horrible dream and someone's going to wake me up and tell me it's not true," Melissa said to me this afternoon, a blank look on her tired, freckled face.
Yes. It's how I now feel, too. Tears came to my mother's eyes and she said "Those poor babies." Ani is barely three, if that. Lena's husband Alejandro is Cristian's stepfather but you'd never know it. I didn't. He loves him so much and is so proud of Cristian. Cristian is eight.
Cristian doesn't know yet.
But it's real. Lena isn't coming home and I won't hear her calling Cristian to come inside. We won't watch Ani and Cristian jumping carefree on their big blue trampoline anymore from our front window. Lena won't be there to invite me, in the sweetest broken English, to the childrens' birthday parties and to ask when my nieces are coming over so that they, too, will be sure to come. She had the loveliest brown eyes, the most gorgeous flowing curly hair, a soft lilting Latin accent. She was only a couple of years older than me. In their house were many pictures of the Virgin Mary.
"She had three sharp pains just before the final stroke," Melissa told me, "and she told her sister Sandra, 'I'm not ready to go.'"
I want to understand the reason behind this loss - because I try to believe there are reasons even for the saddest losses in our lives - but I can't. Why did it have to be Lena? She was happy. And she brought others happiness.
I miss my neighbor, my friend, Cristian's mami.
1:27:33
That's my 2006 Peachtree Road Race time. I finished the thing, anyway, and got the coveted t-shirt.
Well, the shirt didn't suck this year. So that's something.
Happy Fourth of July. Happy Birthday, America. And thanks to our troops for keeping us safe and sacrificing so much.
