NYC and Me III: Lunch with Denny

Denny is an 84 year-old woman who has been a friend to my mother, and by association, our family, since before I was born. Denny, known to me as Vi, but to most everyone else as Denny, has been my personal friend ever since I went to Barnard, and especially after I lived for a year on West 106th Street, just down the street from her apartment on West End Avenue. Vi worked in Admissions at Teacher’s College for many years, and had a lovely side-line as a tutor to child actors, including Christian Slater, for a period of time as well. She never married, and has no living relatives, but has a wonderfully large circle of friends, a circle which has widened over time as she became close to her friends’ children as well (I fall into that category). During my consulting career and my many trips to NYC, I made it a point to take Vi out for dinner on a regular basis; we always had plenty to talk about and her advice always seemed right on the mark. I gave Vi an 80th birthday party in 2004 on the Barnard College campus; there were 66 people in attendance, from all over the country, and included her childhood friends, college friends, neighbors, church friends, and at least one entire family who had all made it to the event. It was a wonderful testament to the enduring legacy of her friendship.

Vi has five goddaughters, at least two of who are named Christina (including my sister), and one of whom is Cynthia Nixon. I have known Cynthia as long as I can remember, and I dutifully saw her in movies and plays throughout the years (starting with “The Philadelphia Story” in 1979 and most recently, her Tony Award-winning performance in “Rabbit Hole” in 2006), often joining Vi for a performance in the City, and frequently Cynthia would join us afterward for a post-performance dinner. To Vi’s delight, Cynthia attended Barnard College (she entered as I graduated); she could claim that two of her favorite people attended Barnard. During my term as President of the Alumnae Association of Barnard College (AABC), Cynthia was given a Young Alumnae Award at her 15th Reunion Dinner in 2003, and it was my pleasure to invite Vi to be a special guest at the event and sit at one of the head tables with Cynthia and me. That night Vi was in seventh heaven.

To fast forward and condense a bit, it was three years ago that we all noticed that Vi was losing her short term memory, and began to be concerned that she could no longer live alone in her apartment on West End Avenue. And almost two years ago now, after a fall getting on a NYC bus, Cynthia was able to find an affordable place for Vi to live out the rest of her days, in a quasi-hospital on the Upper West Side, in which she has 24 hour supervision and whatever medical care she needs. I have continued to visit Vi in her new home, and on this trip, I had arranged to bring my niece Chelsea with me, as I hoped to pass along our family’s tradition of friendship with Vi to Chelsea.

So it was that Chelsea, Vi and I were sitting at a four-top at Café du Monde on Broadway at 112th Street (right across from Tom’s Diner, for those in the know) enjoying a bright sunny day in October. We had just ordered our lunch when we were interrupted by Cynthia, who came over and embraced Denny, exclaiming, “I’ve been looking all over for you!” Apparently Cynthia had decided this was a good day for a visit too, and with that, she joined our table for lunch.

I have known Cynthia for a long time, so I didn’t really think about it, but when I introduced Chelsea to Cynthia, I thought, OMG, Chelsea is meeting a movie star for the first time! I knew that Cynthia is an oft-spoken of alumnae of Barnard on campus, and would be known to most females of Chelsea’s age as Miranda in HBO’s Sex in the City, and most recently of the SITC movie, which I had gone to with Chelsea, my sister and mother on the opening night of the flick. She could have sat slack-jawed throughout the lunch, but no, Chelsea kept her cool, identified herself as a Barnard freshman, and then proceeded to go through the meal without once asking a question that would have identified her as some star-struck fan. I was very proud of her! Indeed, I asked most of the questions that might be considered in that latter category, but got some interesting answers (the next SITC movie will be released in 2010; her next play “Distracted” begins on Broadway in January).

It was a classic moment in NYC for me – running into people serendipitously, having experiences that are familiar, yet new, and enjoying friendships that are long-standing.