Posts tagged New York City
The Royalty of Brooklyn
The Royalty of Brooklyn

Grandma Helen was my fancy grandmother. Born in 1909, she was the firstborn child of Julius and Mary Nelson’s five children. Her tall, blue-eyed father liked to tell her that her birth brought him luck. After Grandma arrived, Julius went from selling newspapers on the Lower East Side to learning the trade in his wife’s family’s coat business.

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Our Grandmother's StoriesJulia NusbaumGrandmother, Family, New York City, immigration stories Comment
An Almanac of All the Ways to Sit on a Sidewalk and Cry
An Almanac of All the Ways to Sit on a Sidewalk and Cry

Your hands are shaking. When you squint at the street sign, your vision blurs. You stop in front of a subway station, interrupting the current of pedestrians moving downstream into the underground. They divide around you with disgruntled murmurs. So many people—too many. You are biting your lip to keep your anxiety choked down. You tell yourself that instead of being caught in the swell of the subway, you will walk fifty-eight blocks and four avenues.

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GriefJulia NusbaumNew York City, grief, women talking about grief, SadnessComment