Moving On

A few years ago, I was walking in midtown Manhattan with my mom – who grew up in the city. I told her, “Every block of this city reminds me of Grandpa” because, as a career funeral chauffeur, he knew every inch of the city -- every church, every synagogue, every street, and every alley -- like the back of his hand.

She responded with a litany of one-liners, “You’re living in the past; you need to move on. Don’t be so emotional. He had a long life.” And so on. Basically telling me to get over it.

Not one minute later, we turned the corner where Alexander’s, the once famous department store where she had worked, was being razed.

She stopped dead in her tracks and gasped, “Oh my God, Alexander’s is gone!”