It's My Life ...& Welcome To It.: A Beautiful Woman

Aug 30, 2005

Just got home from a night out on the town. We were celebrating Aunt Sissy's 85th birthday. Lee and Alexis and Stacey and I were joined by Sissy's niece Ellen (Sissy's brother's daughter).

My memories of my Uncle Seymour and my Aunt Sissy are among my very earliest. Because our families were so close, geographically and otherwise - Seymour was my mother's baby brother - we celebrated our birthdays, at their house in Brighton Beach for my cousins' birthdays, and at our house in Manhattan Beach for Duba's, Lee's and mine.

The flickering, old movies show my parents and Sissy and Seymour as young parents, beautiful, joyful and vigorous, raising their families. In those early films they are much younger than I am now. And there on eight millimeter, but also indelibly pressed into my memory, - there we are on our tricycles riding up and down the sidewalk on our block, cuddled in our grandparents' arms or enjoying a hot dog that Uncle Seymour was cooking on a grill in the small front yard of their Brighton Beach bungalow. My aunt was a beautiful woman - she reminded me of Peggy Lee. She's still beautiful today - inside and out.

Fast forward to today - most of that generation is gone and we are rapidly becoming the new, older ones. Stacey and I share many good times with Aunt Sissy. But lest you think it's a unilateral relationship, let me hasten to add that it is very mutual: We provide transportation, take care of some repairs, help out with computer skills (when needed). But my aunt, besides being good, and wise, company, is also an important link to a past that resides now only in our memory.

.....

Ellen picked up Sissy in Brighton and drove to our house downtown. The four of us then piled into the new Honda and drove to Manhattan and the restaurant where Alexis and Lee were waiting. They had taken the Long Island Railroad into the city from Bay Shore. We were taking advantage of one of New York's best deals: the restaurant, East Of Eighth, on 23rd Street and Eighth Avenue, has a Tuesday night, all-you-can-eat barbecue that we thought the others would enjoy. It's held in a lovely garden in the back of the restaurant and only during the summer months. A half-a-dozen salads are only the beginning: on the grill Chef Marty has prepared salmon, leg of lamb, brisket, spare ribs and chicken - how much you want? All this will set you back a tiny twenty dollar bill. Prettttty good.

Dinner was lovely. We chatted, drank, ate, chatted, ate, ate and ate. Coffee was served and a small dessert (with a single candle) was brought out to our combined Happy Birthday chorus. Alexis and Lee walked back to catch the train at Penn Station. The rest of us got into our car and we drove back to Brooklyn. A memorable evening with a beautiful woman - my Aunt Sissy!