Our Neighbor

My doorbell rang today and it was our elderly Indian neighbor.  She had come to me because neither her landline nor her cell phone was working and she was hoping to use my phone to get in touch with Time Warner Cable and Verizon to figure out what was going on.  She got some half answers and so left with the intention of unplugging and replugging her landline to see if that would work, and going to the Verizon store to speak with them in person.  Neither of which seemed definite solutions.

So when I returned home today, I visited her to make sure everything was ok.  She answered, so happy to see me, saying that she had been planning to come over to tell me everything was fine.  She welcomed me into her apartment, bright with light from the setting sun over the Hudson River, and had me sit down.  She talked about the phone issues and how everything was now ok, she showed me a device that she can carry that brings her a button away from medical help should she need it, and we exchanged names and numbers for the future.  All of this was relief.

She wrote "Dr." in front of her name with her telephone number and I verbally noticed it.  I had actually already heard from an elevator partner one evening that she was a doctor, and an incredible woman, and how he was going to interview this great aunt of his (was that the relation?) for an article her was writing.  "Yeah, you should really get to know her," he had said.

I took what prompt I could and got terrific results. She gave me a good outline of her life and travels from India to the rest of the world and back, interested in education (the topic of her doctorate), studying and teaching at great universities, and finally coming to live in New York.

She's invited me to come with her to Flushing, Queens, where apparently there is an Indian temple that she would like to show me.

I only have so much time to live in New York and I realize that the summer is a good opportunity to take advantage of it.  What things can I see and do here, what are all the many things that people from around the world come to do?  But what an incredible opportunity, to be a part of someone's life in this way and to learn from her in the middle of the summer.