All the best,
Irene

So nice to hear!

irene

Irene

Sad to say our table gets a little smaller each year but I still love having it!!

Love,
Irene

This is such a wonderful story and exactly what you were talking about in your wonderful blog.

America, Renewed

On Friday, a brillian morning sun piercing their eyes, 125 Americans-to-be got ready to take the citizenship oath on Liberty Island( in New York City).

Officials were collecting Form N-445′s and passing out little flags. Television crews were taking video for the morning shows while an organizer of the event coached the group to cheer like a studio audience. But none of the bustle and distraction – part of a day of celebration for the Statue of Liberty’s 125th birthday – could dim the power of the ceremony.

They were from 46 countries. Some were poor, some frail and old, a good sampling of the New York City area. (There were lots of Dominicans.) Though overshadowed by the statue, they were the real deal, not the symbol. They raised their right hands and plowed through the long, stilted oath. “I will perfom work of national importance under civilian direction when required by the law……” They got to the end (“So help me God”), and at the moment, Amercia was as new as Friday morning.

A speaker, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, ennobled the event by going off script. He urged the citizens to engage in civic life, to push for immigration reform so the undocumented will “not live in the shadows of fear, bu come into the sunlight.” He did not mention the elected officials, Republicans mostly, who have urged punishment without mercy on those who violate laws that they refuse to reform.

Soon these citizens may take up that struggle, but, on Friday, they had other things to do. Tiberiu Gireada, 22, from Romania, had to go back to Hunter College. Saidou Zakou, 34, from Niger, had told his boss at a Bronx clothing store that he had something to do in the morning but would be back at work after.

A nurse from Manhattan, Young Sun Kim, kept her 10-month-old twin daughters, Julia and Rachel, plied with bottles and sliced bananas. When she and her husband, Seong Il Song, went up for their certificates and the four became an American family, the girls were sound asleep in their fuzzy mouse-ear suits, American flags on their laps. Someone tried to start the “U.S.A.! U.S.A.!” chant, but it didn’t catch on. This was a gentler victory.

Thank you for the star treatment. It is very sweet. We came to America in September of 1952 on the SS Argentina that departed from Genoa. I just remember mommy not feeling well and never leaving her bed in the upper berth. She only ate food from the kosher kitchen which must have been pretty awfull. She was terribly seasick. I, on the other hand, ran up and down the ship and played, never understanding where we were going or that no one would speak the same language we did when we landed. Daddy made some friends on the ship and took me with him to eat in the dining room. I have fond memories of the two weeks at sea but the first few years in America were not easy for us.

When I lived in LA I loved coming to your house with our parents to celebrate Thanksgiving. We made mommy’s sweet potatoes and bread pudding. The turkey was always delicious and so was the fresh cranberry relish you made. The whole house smelled (in a good sense) of mulling spices that you used in the apple cider that was cooking on the stove. The table was beautiful with a horn of plenty and fall flowers as well as gourds and little pumpkins. Definitely a Martha Stewart moment. I have fond memories of all those Thanksgivings. My mother and my father and I thank you.

Love, Anita