Home

The plane landed at LGA and quickly halted so as to not dump us into the bay. We walked and walked to exit the Delta Terminal and waited for the Q70 bus that brought us back to Roosevelt where we had a short walk home. I overheard tourists trying to figure out the bus and subway system. As Laurence pulled the suitcase home, he said, “It feels different than when we’ve been gone for two weeks.” We hadn’t gotten so disconnected.

However, I was lonesome for early morning on the deck with my great nephews: Carson, Max, and Ethan, or for the evening Peter, James, and John songs with these and Emma Claire, Drake and Bella. Or the time Laurence and I went with them to throw rocks into the lake. I missed my parents, my brothers and their wives, the grown up nieces and nephews, and the babies: Tobias, Hannah, and Levi. We’d just spent a few days with them in the Ozarks to celebrate my parents’ 65th wedding anniversary.

But then I took a walk, and a building superintendent sweeping sidewalk greeted me. I said, “It’s a beautiful day.” After he agreed. I replied, “I love it.”

He innocently replied, “I love you too.” There’s a lot of love in this city. The customers at the market today asked how I’m doing. Those who know about Laurence having had Covid inquire about his health. Today I could tell them we were married 41 years on April 11. I got coffee and joked with the young man how the other clerk thinks I’m old; “She gives me the senior discount.”

He said, “I think you’re young and pretty,” but then he gave me the senior discount too.

One evening this week we took our picnic supper to Forest Park, and then walked in the woods. Another time, we rode the bus to the wildlife refuge and walked there at sunset. We stopped to visit with a man and his son about the osprey nest. And the man wanted to show us the picture he’d taken of a swan on the lake. In the distance was the Manhattan skyline looking ethereal in the fading sunlight.

Laurence just made us tea, and we’re relaxing in our bedroom, happy to be home. Berniece