A Story I Didn’t

I don’t want to write any more eulogies.

There have been too many this winter of 2018, but this is one I must do.

My friend Alice left our world yesterday. Until our roads veered in different directions two years ago, we dined religiously every Saturday night at the Massapequa Diner.

I went to 4 o’clock Mass at St. James in Seaford, and Alice came from her weekly beauty appointment in Bellmore.

That weekly rendezvous began when Alice moved from Viceroy in Massapequa to South Gate. We had been neighbors for close to 40 years, and I was devastated when she told me about her plans.

I remember the afternoon she broke the news. We were having lunch at Palmers in Farmingdale when she said I have something to tell you.

I hope Alice wasn’t aware of how utterly devastated I was when she told me of her plans. Sometimes we hesitate to let others know how much their presence in our world truly is. That’s how I felt about Alice.

We were the same age, and both had been caregivers for beloved husbands. Alice for far longer than I. My husband’s funeral was at Madonna Heights; Alice’s husband had a traditional Jewish service. Both were equally beautiful; both similarly poignant, and both widows equally heartbroken.

Yet we stayed on in the empty houses for close to ten years; each of us relying more on the local handymen and maintaining the homestead of yore in case any of the family might visit.

The Schwartzman clan did that more often than the Achenbach’s because they lived locally. And I was always invited and more importantly, welcomed. I went to barbecues and bridal showers, and sadly missed a wedding because then I, too, had moved away.

Alice attended all the Madonna Heights fashion shows, but when she wanted to join a local Farmingdale women’s group, wasn’t invited. I was surprised at the rejection, but soon wondered if the reason given wasn’t quite accurate. We never discussed it, but shortly, afterwards, I resigned too.

We were political opposites; we read the same books, and once I left a library meeting in tears when a member accused me of anti-semitism. Alice knew better and loudly defended me..

We saw each other briefly last summer when I returned for a quick visit. I brought her a hand loomed scarf from a Michigan boutique, and I know she was pleased. We spoke often, and she promised she would take the short flight from MacArthur and visit me soon. I truly expected that would happen.

But the God we both believed in had other plans for my beautiful friend.. He wanted her home yesterday, still I will miss her so dreadfully.