Oh, if only Nora Ephron were still alive. She might make a movie about this.
A woman who wishes to remain anonymous was walking to CVS during the snowstorm on January 5, clutching her poodle in her arms. She reached the corner of 86th street and Amsterdam Avenue, and found her way blocked by “hills of ice and mess,” she told West Side Rag in a phone interview.
Out of the blue came a “nice Jewish guy” offering to ferry her across the treacherous street. (How did she know he was Jewish? She just knew.)
“Lemme help you,” he said, but she demurred because a helping hand might actually throw off her balance. So he said: “I’ll watch you to make sure you cross safely.”
They traveled across the street together and talked a bit before she darted into the drug store. “I saw him turn around and look at me and then he went on his day.”
“I was kicking myself because i should have continued to talk to him. I thought ‘Gee whiz I should’ve gotten his phone number.'”
So was this a possible love connection? “Just a friend. He was just a very decent kind of person. I wanted to thank him and talk to him.”
She put up signs around the area, hoping he would see.
“It was a shot in the dark.”
But more than a week later, she still hasn’t heard from the mystery man.
The woman is still holding out hope, however, and plans to put more signs up if the ones she first taped up have come down. She doesn’t live on the Upper West Side, but she comes here often and has friends here.
“He was just a very decent kind of person.” It’s a special treat “if somebody is nice to you in New York. It would be nice to hear from him again.”
Photo via Cibo E Vino.
If you liked this story, you may also like our piece from two years ago about a man who drew a picture of a local bully and posted it around the neighborhood.
We are the New York City Human Family, time be damned.
“A woman who wishes to remain anonymous” – so we thought we’d PUBLISH HER PHONE NUMBER? “Here’s your sign!”