Getting Old and Getting Out
In New York City
byHerb Bardavid
This is Netty
Netty is now retired she worked as a secretary in Brooklyn for many years. She had worked for the New York City Board of Education and also for a number of various construction firms, also in Brooklyn.
I met her as I was leaving Hamilton House on 73rd street in New York City. Netty came to the United States from the Philippines when she was 18 years old. She is now 78 years old. The first thing she told me about was Hamilton House and that if I go there I could get lunch for free. I guess this was her way of letting me know that I too was among the elderly. Netty told me that Hamilton House was an important place for her because she goes there for various social activates, not just for food. Her husband died in 1998 when she was 67 years old. And although she has 5 children and 15 grandchildren who visit her often, she still lives alone and needs peer contact and depends on the socialization at Hamilton House to provide much of that socialization.
I asked Netty my important question about getting out. She said she gets out almost every day, it is what keeps loneliness and depression away. She loves getting old and getting out in New York City.