I am looking out over the Manhattan skyline from a Brooklyn Heights parsonage. I can see where the Staten Island Ferry docks, and where the Brooklyn Bridge enters Manhattan and I can see the Empire State Building further up Manhattan. Beneath the Empire State Building is the location of community church.
I am in New York until the Memorial Service for Marjorie on Saturday. My New York City visits go back to the early 1960s. I was here when Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated and I was part of the huge demonstration the next day, I was here for anti Vietnam war rallies, and large meetings in solidarity with the overthrown democratically elected government of
Chile. Most of my New York adventures were on the upper West Side in those days.
Later I lived a few months in Chelsea, and visited friends here frequently driving from Boston and parking in the space of a friend who lived in a co-op who had a parking space but no car.
When I meet Marjorie I got to know the East Side a little better, I would come down from Quebec and we would see the city. I remember the trip to Union Theological School for a lecture, it was cold and it involved a lot of transfers. The lecture I have forgotten, but that trip was an adventure. Marjorie travelled all over the city.
I know Boston so much better, but this city has been very much a part of my life. I will consider the next few days as if it were a pilgrimage, reconnecting with so many events over so many years.
Dear Clyde,
Thank you for providing this special place for us to share with you our deepest feelings. As I read the comments of others who have been touched and loved by Marjorie, I am comforted.
My time in Marjorie's presence was more limited than the others who write, but that in no way diminishes the depth of my feelings for her or my profound feelings of loss.
I spent last week with my children and grandchildren in New York City, experiencing this special season. On Sunday the 16th I attended services at Community Church to be where Marjorie had ministered. It was healing. I'm home now and will be in the Chapel at First UU Church of San Diego Saturday, participating in a "Service of Remembrance," conducted at the same time as the Memorial Service in New York. The depth of my sorrow is great and an indication of how deeply Marjorie touched the essence of each of us. I so miss her and what might have been.
I will keep you in my thoughts and prayers,
Jan
Dear Clyde,
I have read your postings "A week in Boston" and "Again New York". As you know Marjorie was to be our Associate Minister here at 1st UU Church San Diego. Jan Gallo's posting has given me the courage to respond. Because of her sharing, I can share that my fellings of loss and grief are deep.
My sadness is many layered: for myself, my family and all the things that might have been, for you and your family, for 1st UU San Diego, and for Marjorie whose life work was cut short.
What heals it is the knowledege that she is no longer suffering and to turn my grief into honoring her memory by continuing the Spiritual work of Anti-racism and Anti-Oppression.
Love, Peace and Hope,
Clyde to you and your family.
Kathleen :)