The old woman moved very slowly down the cold concrete sidewalk of East 4th street.
Her body was bent forward as she used the tiny blue shopping cart to help steady her walk. With her knuckles swollen and her hands looking somewhat distorted, she gripped the cart's thin metal bar for dear life.
Wearing her old favorite tan overcoat and dark sunglasses she had hair as white as a new fallen snow. The wind was bitter cold as it blew against her skin, she seemed to be counting her steps as she walked.
The wheels of the cart squeaked quite loudly and made a sound that was almost seemed musical, the spokes just glistening in the morning sunlight. I watched her until she vanished around the corner onto Beverly Road.
She was tall and beautiful with long brown wavy hair and dark blue eyes. There she stood under the big clock at the Hotel Astor in Manhattan.
“Hey gorgeous, how about a movie tonight?”
The young woman smiled as she glanced back up at the clock. It was five minutes to six and her date would be there any minute. His name was Ray Ravelli, and he was a professional boxer. Tonight there would be a lot of stopping on the way to dinner, because everyone knew Ray when he walked through Times Square. As the clock struck six and the bells gently tolled, she saw Ray walking towards her.
She smiled as he took her hand.
“Hey Ray, when you going to fight Graziano again.” shouted someone from the crowd.
With quickness in her steps she pulled him along through the busy sidewalks of Times Square. Ray, unable to answer the question from the stranger just turned to her and said, “Hey Stella, how about we just get married and move to California?”.
She just looked at him and shook her head "No".
She stared into the mirror and closely studied her face.
“Who you looking at you old woman!”
"I thought you were still young and beautiful"
The lady in the mirror just smiled back.
With much caution in her steps she slowly walked out of the bathroom and headed towards her favorite chair by the window, her old bent finger flipped up the switch of her radio. She loved “Prairie Home Companion” on a Saturday night. Then she reached into her bathrobe pocket and pulled out her mother’s old magnifying glass. She placed it against the face of her watch and slowly drew it towards her blue eyes. It was six o’clock and time for another beautiful sunset over Brooklyn.
My Mom never married Ray the boxer. He wanted to elope and move to California, my mom just wasn’t that adventurous and instead decided to stay in New York and make Brooklyn her home. She loved the excitement of Brooklyn and especially the young people.
“Do you think I want to live with a bunch of old people and hear
all their stories about aches and pains? no, I’d rather live with the young, at least they help you forget that you’re old”.
My mom died on October 13, 2001 at the age of 83.
A Kensington resident for well over fifty years.
She never left Brooklyn, and I never remembered
to oil the squeaky wheels of her carriage.
Ron Lopez
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