Sarah

Five minutes alone with Sarah and you’re hooked. With lively blue eyes and an infectious energy level, she instantly makes you feel welcome in her Lower East Side apartment.

When she was younger she traveled all over the world, but now Sarah is homebound. Her apartment practically doubles as a museum with the array of paintings, sculptures and other artifacts displayed from her travels China, Israel, Haiti, and Portugal, to name a few. Point to any statue or print in the apartment and she will tell you where it is from, and the story behind it.

The only girl in a family of four, she was born at home on the Lower East Side. She began traveling as a young woman. Her friends bought sheared lamb coats, she bought plane tickets. Her first journey alone came after her traveling partner fell ill shortly before departure. Ironically, it was Sarah’s over-protective mother who encouraged her to go anyway. She sailed to England, and upon her arrival, found the hotel where she had made a reservation, completely booked. Alone and trying to ward off panic, Sarah was at a loss. She stepped outside to see her taxi driver still there. Sitting on the hotel stoop, he promised to drive her around until they found a place for her to stay. In England, tired and alone, decades ago, Sarah learned that everyone needs a little help sometimes. This is how Sarah feels about Citymeals. “Citymeals is very important to older people, especially in the winter. It’s cold and too windy to go outside. Or in the summer when the heat is just too much.”

Though never married, Sarah surrounded herself with friends and family throughout her life. She worked for the City of New York as the Personnel Director in Human Resources until her retirement. She has brothers in Queens and Brooklyn, but they are older and unable to travel. For someone who can barely make it out of their apartment, Queens may as well be at the end of the Earth. When she feels well, she sits in the gardens connected to her building. She has friends in neighboring Stuyvesant Town, but she is an elderly woman, living alone, and even getting the few blocks to Stuyvesant Town is a challenge. She relies on a shopping cart for balance, even to get around her apartment. Citymeals is her source of food. She traveled around the world when she could. Now she needs Citymeals to bring the world to her.