A Splendid Introduction

By Kathy Davis

My treasured friend who lives a full life in NYC, is someone whom I call a conduit. She is a conduit of the most exalted kind, for she makes the time to bring sentient beings together who would not have had the opportunity to discover one another either by chance or by circumstance. Two of her closest friends since college days have sought refuge with her from abusive marriages.

My friend's home in NYC is a harbor for them and for two precious dogs that needed rescuing. Most evenings,this menage of humans and canines are enjoying one another's company and there is always a beautiful Italian meal prepared lovingly for dinner by her two house guests, both first and second generation Italians.My mouth waters as I am told of the home made raviolis, pizzas,soups and zucchini tureens that are routinely prepared for dinner.

One of the house guests has an Italian born mother who lives in NYC and is in her mid eighties. Her name is Mrs. Mancini and she too cooks splendid culinary Italian creations.My conduit of a friend invited her dear friend Gerty, who is  Jewish and  is also in her mid eighties to dinner in her home so that she and Mrs. Mancini could meet. Gerty was raised in Germany during the Holocaust  and Mrs.Mancini was raised in Mussolini's Italy. Both of these woman were survivors of the second world war, and both  immigrated to America in NYC.

Gerty and Mrs. Mancini  are extraordinary human beings for they lived and survived world war two and triumphed the many heartbreaks and challenges  on the path toward arriving in one's mid eighties. Mrs. Mancini moved to Germany as a little girl, for her father was in the Italian military and she witnessed the attrocities perpetrated by the Nazis while living there.It would take a life time of living, and reaching her eighties before she would meet her kindred spirit of a friend, Gerty.

Both of these women, in spite of and because of their life experiences have a zest for living. What they share is having young spirits by virtue of having remained a part of life and open to new perspectives.Some people become reclusive,isolating themselves from participating in life and doing so, is the kiss of death.Not so, for Gerty and Mrs. Mancini.

My friend the conduit, received a phone call the other night from Mrs. Mancini thanking her for the splendid  introduction to Gerty.The two of them had already gone out on the town and had attended a film at the Tribeca film festival. Gerty of course had just invited Mrs. Mancini into her circle of kindred sprits for one of their regular Friday evening dinner parties, of which some of the gals are in their nineties. One of these fabulous ladies is a former Ziegfield girl and still does Pilates.

Oh how these gals/ladies are my new role models for they are celebrating life and not worrying about when it will all end.My motto has always been that a good dinner party can create the most magic in so many ways. Now all I have to do is to figure out how I can  be  invited to one of Gerty's evenings! I just gotta get to know and "party" with my new role models! Perhaps my friend the conduit can procure my invitation. Oh, the magic of a good dinner party!