Month: June 2007

A Mini 6th Grade Reunion Gone Wrong Or Did It?

As some of you know, I just came back from NYC where I had a small reunion with three friends from my elementary school days. All three friends were in my fifth and sixth grade classes.

With the exception of one of the classmates, which I recently wrote about in another blog, I had not seen these people for over 39 years. The other two were the valedictorian and salutatorian of my sixth grade class grade.  These other two classmates were also in my third and fourth grade classes and I have always admired and thought about them a great deal throughout the years. Since we were together for so long, I always felt like they were siblings of mine.

If you read my other blog, you already know how I found my best friend, Sandra, from sixth grade. I used my cyber-sleuth skills to find, George, which was the former salutorian and Elly, which was the former valedictorian, found me on Http://www.Classmates.com.

I got to NYC late on Thursday, the 7th of June. I planned to meet everyone at a restaurant in NYC the next day around 7:00 pm. In the meantime, I saw Elly immediately the first night since she lived very close to the hotel I was staying in. She showed me around town and we went to Applebee’s where her son works and had desert. It was so great seeing her again.

The next day, I slept very late and then took the metro train into the city, which was close to the hotel I was staying in. I was such a trip down memory lane seeing Times Square, Radio City music hall and Rockefeller center. As some of you know, I am originally from NYC but had not been there since 1972.  I took my 13-year old boy to the Nintendo World store, which had been his dream to go to for a while. He had a great time there.

I was disappointed to find that the original New York Style pizza was not available hardly anywhere. This is what I have been craving the most since leaving NYC all those years ago. I did however find coconut flavored Italian style ices which I also loved and had a large serving of it. My son and husband had NYC style hot dogs, which they loved.

While I was on the Metro heading back to my hotel room, I got a voice mail from my best friend Sandra. She had flown into NYC the Tuesday before I did to attend our mini sixth grade reunion.

Her message stated that she could not attend our dinner tonight because her mom had been admitted to the hospital with pneumonia.  Well, needless to say, I was very disappointed that she could not attend and at the same time concerned about her mom. I had hoped to see her mom also. As a sixth grader, I was always hanging out at Sandra’s house and therefore knew her mom well. I had also not seen her for over 39 years.

The dinner the next day was so much fun. George, Elly and I saw each other for the first time in 39 years and we could hardly believe we were together again. George and Elly were romantically involved while in the fifth grade, broke up during that summer and did not speak to each other during the sixth grade even though they were in the same sixth grade class. Since I knew this, I was extra happy to see them speaking to each other again after all of these years

George and Elly were also very disappointed to hear that Sandra could not attend. We however had another get together planned on Sunday night and we were all planning to go to our old elementary school on Monday.

Our school is in the inner city and we planned to talk to the children about never giving up on their dreams. Since we all went to that school and became successful, we wanted to let the kids know that their environment should not dictate their futures and that if they stayed in school and worked hard, they could become as successful as we did.

On Saturday I took the metro train into the city again and visited some tourist attractions and museums. I called Sandra to let her know how much everyone missed her at the dinner party the night before and find out how her mom was doing. She just happened to be close by to where I was and she took a cab to see me. I got to visit with her for about 15 minutes.

Sandra’s husband is a doctor and he was with her at the time. He explained that Sandra’s mom also had terminal Leukemia, the kind that was not related to the bone marrow.  I never knew there were different types of Leukemia. He also explained that because of the Leukemia, her body had a poor immune system and most of the time, when she got sick, she would have to be hospitalized.

Sandra told me that since she got to NYC for the reunion, she and her husband had done nothing but spend their days at the hospital trying to negotiate her mom’s care with the hospital and keeping her mom company. She had not even had time to unpack her suitcase since she arrived. To make a long story short, Sandra never got to attend the dinner meeting with us on Sunday nor go to the elementary school with us on Monday, the 11th of June.

I kept trying to call her but her voice mail kept picking up her cell phone and she would not return my calls. This really worried me. I left NYC Tuesday afternoon never getting any news about Sandra.

This morning I finally reached her. She stated that her mom died the night before last around 12:00 midnight. Sandra told me she felt sad but blessed because if I had not set up this mini-reunion when I did, she would have never been there during her mom’s last days.

She also said, that her husband would never had been able to negotiate her mom’s care with the hospital nor would have been able to use his connections with other Pathologists to get her mom’s test results back quicker then normal. Her husband would also never have gotten days off work on such short notice to even do these things if he had not already been in NYC during this time. Her statement about feeling blessed more then anything else really touched my heart and made me cry the most.

Also, when I first saw her for the first time in 39 years last March, she said she thought there was a reason why I found her now. She felt there was no such thing as a coincidence and that everything happens for a reason. I am beginning to think she is so right.

So, what do you think? Was these events destined to happen the way they did? Did I really find her recently so I was able to make the mini reunion arrangements when I did?  I don’t think we will ever know the answers to these questions however these are interesting possibilities to think about.

Here are some pictures:

Here is a picture of Elly and I:


Here is a picture of Sandra and I in front of the Museum of Natural History

Here is another picture of Sandra and I in front of the Museum of Natural History.

Here is a picture of George and I:

Here is a picture of my husband and I:

Here is a picture of Elly, George and I:

My Trip to the Eastern State Penitentiary

My Trip to the Eastern State Penitentiary
jun 14th, 2007

As some of you know, I just came back from a trip to Philly and NYC. I did not send a bulletin about this because my specific purpose for going to NYC was to attend a mini reunion with three newly found friends from my sixth grade class. I was there for only a few days and therefore did not have time to do any other type of socializing. I therefore apologize if some of you would have liked to hook up with me while I was there. I will write another blog about the mini reunion soon, so stay tuned.

One of the highlights of my Philly trip was visiting the Eastern State Penitentiary. It is a fascinating and historic place to visit and many people have reported seeing both shadow and full body apparitions while touring the place. Former inmates and guards have also reported having the same paranormal experiences.

One of the most famous former inmates at this prison was Al Capone. While he was a prisoner there, he sworn the Ghost of a man was haunting him in retaliation for ordering the mob to murder him. Capone would be found in his cell many nights screaming at the man to leave him alone. When the prison guards responded to his screams, they would find no one.

One of the most interesting stories about Al Capone is that this prison treated him as a celebrity while he was there. He actually had a real bed to sleep in, a radio, a desk to write on and a lamp. These were luxuries not available to other inmates. If you visit the prison today, his cell is still furnished the way it was then. You will recognize the picture of Al Capone cell because it will have a red bed spread.

While I was there, I noticed that cell rooms 6 and 12 were only open to special groups. I wondered why that was so. Well, when I got home, I did some research into the matter and found out that most of the sighting reports have occurred in cell rooms 6 and 12, the Death Row area, the Infirmary and the Central Guard tower. It is unfortunate that these rooms were not available to the public because I would have loved to visit the cells and take pictures. I did go the Death row area. Unfortunately, I did not visit the infirmary or the Central guard tower.

I did not see anything out of the ordinary while I was there but it sure was an amazing place to visit. Here is a slide show of the pictures I took. Some of the pictures contain sculptures that local artists from Philly have created and put into the cells.

You can see the pictures on my photobucket account here: (Maybe some of you might see something that I missed.)

Photobucket Page 1.

Photobucket Page 2.