THERE’S GOT TO BE A MORNING AFTER

Spanning four generations
NANA

Today we are celebrating not only Nana’s 90th birthday, but also the fact that I lived to see it. As I’ve mentioned before, I always thought that Nana looked like the end of an index finger, until the day I got married, when she put it down and announced: “Good riddance!”

This birthday is an important link to our very selves as Children and grandchildren of Nana. Today we witness the spanning of two centuries, an old 20th with a rich history that Nana helped write, and a new 21st century of history that you will help write. In either case, Nana is a part of it, and has influenced it greatly.

I have known Nana to laugh in the face of tears, and cry in the face of joy. She has taught us great life lessons. I’ve seen her remind us of who we are, where we come from, that we are not so beautiful to poke fun at people, that in life you lick your wounds and move on. Nothing is impossible if you put your mind and heart into it. Don’t complain: no one really wants to hear it. If you are sick, go away until you feel better.

Was Nana a nurturer? Yes she was. She nurtured our self-reliance and independence. Did she teach us anything? Yes, what is important is to laugh each day, cry when you need to, but do that when no one is around to hear it.

A few years ago, I was working for a company that had a high-pressure position in the market place. Sales, was life and death, and I was asked to improve on the bottom line. I would close my door often in the late afternoon to concentrate on the project at hand, and often I would hear this woman laughing somewhere in the office. At first, I wanted to go out and quiet her down, but though about it, and decided that it was almost comforting. Why was her laughter comforting? Because she sounded like Nana! It reminded me that Nana encouraged me to get there, she was a booster, and that woman’s laughter put Nana in that office for me.

I marvel and look back at the humble beginnings of this wonderful family. Growing from the small apartment in Brooklyn when we were growing up to this very moment. We lived the dream to move out to the Island. The many fields that we have entered and joined in marriage and birth, the complexity of opinion and yet regard for each other. Witnessing today, and all the wonderful people that married into this family, people that make it a great family, I marvel at this little lady and what she began, and what she has created.

We her children, in spite of all our petty differences growing up, learned from Nana that family comes first. We stick together, if we cry it is for each other as we laugh at ourselves with one another.

You can see and witness it first hand, when we gather for Christmas Eve, and days like today, and we say, Thanks Nana, we love you.