I just got the call from her sister. She is finally out of pain. What a horrible death, lingering pain even with all of the meds. She didn't deserve that. Sylvia was a sweet woman that didn't have any children of her own. When I met her twentyish years ago, we were neighbors in New York. I had just moved back from a four year stint in Michigan with my beautiful bride in tow. I rented the apartment on a solo trip to New York. It was in a decent area, great BIG apartment with a sunken living room, convenient to the subway, and affordable. When Cindy saw the apartment however, she started to cry. It was not the glamourous New York that she had hoped for, and once she saw the neighbors, she cried even more. This was not what she thought she was getting in for. SURPRISE! After a short while, Cindy started to work overtime more and more. Something was going on I thought, and something in fact was . So, after the confrontation, she moved out and led the sophisticated life of a New Yorker that she envisioned.
Sylvia and her husband Sid lived directly opposite my apartment and they "lived" through my existence. I knew that as I was entering my apartment, they would be loking through the "peekhole" in their door, watching, seeing with whom I was with, what bags I was carrying, what I was wearing, and if I were running late. I had a choice to make back then. Should I be "pissed off" that they were "spying", or just let it go, realizing that they were just bored living in a mediocre existence. I opted for letting it go. Sometimes, on rare occassion, I would wave while opening my door acknowledging the fact that I knew they were looking.
Sid would attempt to stop by as soon as I got home. "What's new kid?", he would say as I would be taking off my tie. We would chat about the neighborhood, the neighbors, and sometimes Sylvia, whom he loved dearly. He was a gruff kind of guy. A real New York character, having grown up amongst the stoops and sidewalks of a City you see in Black and White movies.
I was unlike anyone that Sid and Sylvia had ever crossed paths with. First off, they knew me as a married man, then they knew more. A married "gay man" I was monogumous, Cindy was not, go figure, but that's another blog for another day.
Sylvia had undergone a mastectomy , and this gruff guy would open up to me about his feelings and concerns, and get teary eyed. " I don't know how I am going to look at her" he said. He didn't have anyone else that he could say that to. I would listen.
Time heals everything they say. Sylvia healed. Sid too healed. Life got back to "normal" for them. Life got back to "normal" for me.
Years went by, relationships came and went, and eventually I moved to the "burbs". They moved to Floriduh. We always kept in contact with each other, after all they thought of me as the child they never had. I would send them birthday, mothers day, and fathers day cards from "your son". Sid passed away a few years ago. Now Sylvia. The end of a chapter of my life too.
Rest in Peace Sylvia.