Plane View Park and Reflections

The white cherry trees bloom in Plane View Park tonight. Delta, Spirit, American Airlines fly low over the narrow strip of lawn before landing at LaGuardia Airport on the runway just across Grand Central Parkway.

In 1988, as new missionaries in the city, we’d stand by the bedroom windows in the Woodside apartment to watch the planes descend towards the airport. I recall standing by the windows that first week along with Reuben and Lydia Shirk. Today, we often walk the two miles to the park across from the runways.

We pass through residential neighborhoods on this walk. The lilacs are beginning to bloom. The smelling of them gave me a longing for a farm in Kansas with a playhouse behind the lilac bushes.

At 35th Avenue, I looked up to the top floor, corner apartment where Mrs. Balash resided. Five mornings a week for two years I walked to her place to make her breakfast, do her shopping, clean her tiny apartment, and get lunch on. The income helped pull us through those difficult first years of living here.

We brought the bus home tonight. I remember the first bus ride from the park in 2020 after that terrible time of lockdown when the streets became quiet and people died. How we climbed in the back door of the bus without paying a fare. A sign said, “What are you doing on here? Are you an essential worker?” Everyone was scared. We survived but Covid changed our lives.

Today began with a blessing. Israel and Sarah traveled from PA to have breakfast with us. It’s been 22 years since Israel hung his Amish hat on our hall tree. The Lord has been good to them and us, and we are so grateful!

Now it’s almost bedtime. May your night be restful.

Berniece

P.s. I appreciate those Whatsapp comments on the blog, but go ahead and post on here, my friends.