For many years  I have been a member of the Ethical Culture Society of Riverdale. Early on, we formed a caring committee, calling and visiting members that had been absent for some time. We called them to see if they needed any  help, we sent "Get Well” cards and  kept them up to date on our activities.

As the years passed  on , I no longer was able to be too active, however the telephone calls continued to be one of my remaining contributions.This Wednesday, the weather had been absolutely deadly, snow had begun to fall, it was so foggy I could not see across the river to New Jersey and I felt really in the dumps, nobody to talk to, no prospects of getting out of doors. Ice and snow is the most frightening for the elderly with brittle bones.

There was a knock at my door and it was a visitor from my Ethical Culture Society, bringing a little box of goodies for me. She mentioned that on New Year’s day she would visit the Jewish Nursing Home of Riverdale, with similar gifts, would I care to come with her? I forgot about the icy streets, she would take me by car and watch over me carefully. I happily accepted.

The couple we were to visit, I had known very well but had not seen for about five years or more. They did not share the same room. We stopped to see his wife first. She had been a wonderful poet and writer. She came from Budapest and the title of her book was “Lost in Budapest”. It was a lovely sensitive story.  Her name is Evelyn.  She was resting and we could only exchange a few words, she smiled said that she remembered me, that she was only 84 years old, I called her a baby and she immediately went back to sleep.

Her husband Eugene was on a different floor. He was wide awake, and when he saw me, he smiled and said “STAMPS”. He did not remember my name, but he did remember that whenever they had returned from a foreign trip, they had collected the stamps for me. His brain was in good shape and we had quite a lively exchange about many topics.

While we were chatting, I had the feeling that there was another person in the room with us. Out of the corner of my eyes I saw a very, very tall figure standing to the right of me. I turned and then started laughing. There, bigger than life, was a cardboard figure of our President Elect Barack Obama. That was not all, he had his book and lots of literature lying on his desk. He also had a moving slide show of his entire family, so he could see them any time of day and night. What a smart man with a wonderful son who made all these things possible.  From his dying bedside he supported Obama.

I can tell you , I was no longer depressed when I got home. Assisting friends and family makes it all worthwhile.


© Gerta Freeman - January 1, 2009