NYC is full of young folks who relocated there to follow their dreams and find opportunities that just don't exist anywhere else. Young folks are always on the move. And, young folks have not yet accumulated a lot of the "creature-comfort" junk that us old fossils have. So, they don't need as much room.
Sarah's apartment had a small, but well-equipped kitchen. A small, but adequate bathroom (complete with an old-style claw-footed bathtub). The shower head was as large as some of her mother's meat serving platters. Sarah's bedroom was the larger one of the two in the apartment, and very comfortable. There was a very roomy and functional laundry area in the basement of the building. And, plenty of security with doormen at each entrance, and locking iron doors/gates that are closed during the night.
The best thing about our daughter's apartment was the view.
I could look out any window and see across the street into office buildings. I saw folks with their well-appointed desks, workspaces, and computers. One guy had a large corner office, with glass on both sides. In his office was his personal workspace, a small conference table with fancy leather chairs, and even a big flat-screen TV viewing area. And, NO I was not looking through a spy-glass as I checked out his place. It was right there in full view.
I showed Sarah his office. She said he must be a, "big shot."
All around our daughter's apartment building were businesses. Starbuck's, Chinese restaurants, Japanese restaurants, palm readers/fortune tellers, local markets and more restaurants, as well as chains like Five Guys Hamburgers (where we ate a late supper that first night). There were drug stores, clothiers, jewelry stores, dry cleaners, more apartment buildings, more local shops, and just about anything and everything else a human being could conceive of.
There were always people on the curbs, cars on the streets, the sound of sirens in the distance, and conversation. Most of it NOT in English. We had always been told that NYC is the, "city that never sleeps." Well, some of that is true and some of it isn't. Though there was constant noise on the street during the night, many businesses close up by 9:00-10:00 PM. Over their dark spaces are pulled the protective hardware of the locking, steel, security curtains.
Our daughter's NYC apartment fits her and her NYC life so well. She is surrounded by people who live their lives in that historic, old city the same way that we live ours in the South. They get up tired every day, leave their homes and put in a hard, full day of work, and then go back at night to rest and prepare for another day to, as Jackson Browne's classic tune, "The Pretender," says, "get up and do it again...amen."
One of the things a mother HAS to do is to see where her babies live when they leave the nest. She has to. For her own peace and sanity, not to mention her husband's, she HAS to know and have a picture in her mind of where her babies are. When a mama gets this, she is much more serene and at peace. Again, this is also good for the husband.
Sarah made every effort to make us feel at home. She cooked for us, gave us her bed, and fussed over us just like her mother does when she is home. Sarah was our tour guide, our chamber of commerce, and our hotel concierge. Debbie was so very happy and pleased - extremely content and reassured when she saw where her baby lives, and how she has made a small, cozy corner of NYC a fitting home for her crazy life.
The antithesis to the old saying came to mind, "If mama's happy, then everybody's happy." After seeing Sarah & Sarah's place, mama was/is definitely happy.
One final time. This is also a good thing for the husband.
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