NY Weekend

Eight of us were sitting in a midtown diner. My husband David, sons Jason and Aron, Aron’s girlfriend Jackie, my daughter Jess, son-in-law Shane, and their son, Simon. It had been no small feat coordinating a weekend for eighteen in the city. This was already day two and I was starting to feel like this was going very well. Simon at eleven and a half months was munching a grilled cheese sandwich: white bread and Kraft American singles. His usual stellar diet would have to take a back seat for a few days. The rest of us ordered tuna melts, omelettes or bagels, cream cheese and lox. My parents were resting at the hotel, my sister and her family were lunching on their own, and my brother and sister-in-law, New Yorkers, were supervising their teenage kids in Brooklyn.

A woman with a colorful scarf wrapped around her head, dark glasses, and brassy blond hair cautiously approached me. “You don’t know who I am…” she started “…but I just wanted to say you have a very nice family.” This brought a wide smile to my face. “Thank you so much.” I responded. This kind stranger reminded me to savor the eight of us chatting at the same table, my father celebrating his 85th birthday after recent bypass surgery and two additional operations, and my siblings and their children joining us for festive dinners and long walks in Central Park.

We should do this again sometime. An annual family reunion including members who live in four different states can work. In a world filled with strife and uncertainty, taking note of what we have is essential. Saturday evening, my brother asked a friend to take photos of our group outside the restaurant. Inside, we were seated at one long table. Toasts and hilarious anecdotes peppered the conversation. My sister-in-law Jean thanked my parents for welcoming her twenty years ago even though she knew she had presented them with “challenges”. Aron made us laugh as he described Nanny and Papa chaperoning him on an all important seventh grade date.

Later while I waited in the ladies room line, a woman dashed in and exclaimed: “I just wanted to catch you and say I was watching you outside and you’re still having such fun…some of us wish we could join the party.”