MOVING FROM THE UPPER EAST SIDE TO RIVERDALE

Managing a blog is like having a tiger by the tail! Good heavens. I'm way overdue for a new post. The reason: I'm giving up my apartment on East 93rd Street! Quite traumatic! On retirement from Epiphany Parish in July 1996, I lived there in Ruppert House, a governmentally subsidized middle-income co-op. I had been the President of its non- profit sponsoring corporation whose board members included Rev. Clarke Oler, Rabbi Dan Davis, and a designee by each one of us.

Living alone is not the greatest. When the flu or something else would hit, a neighbor had my number to call in the morning. If no answer, call 911. I did not accomplish much as a cook. Although I have had many friends, one has to become a social engineer to arrange dinner dates and and fill the gaps at restaurants with the prettiest waitresses. I never once resorted to fast food deliveries altho between 6 and 9 the streets were filled with Hispanic and Oriental bicyclists. In the event of a crash, the street would be littered with fancy topped pizzas or chop suey. When our clergy retirement residence - Thank you, Cardinal Egan - opened in 2003, I moved here. The place is spectacular. Riverdale is like Westchester. FLIC food service is excellent. Fellow residents - pastors, educators, military and hospital chaplains - are hail fellows well met. We have all experienced grumpy pastors. There must be a screening process because, happily, they are not here. I'm glad to have passed the test!

I kept the apartment in the following years as a happy base on Manhattan's Upper East Side. I was a Board Member of The Ronald McDonald House, a home-away-from-home for parents of children who had come to New York for cancer treatement. I instituted a Pastoral Care Department there. For many years I offered Mass in the RMD House chapel each Thursday evening. I also was and continue as Chaplain to the Respect For Law Alliance, an organization of lawyers, judges, and criminal justice people. Evening meetings and activities of the RMDH and the RFLA together with other forays into Manhatten could be followed by a convenient overnight at my apartment. I shall miss this!

The process of moving uncovers files and photos of interesting events and personalities. I have enjoyed reliving many of these and plan to share some of them in future postings on this ARCHANGEL blog.