I never got married, but I have a beautiful community

Elaine has a special place in her heart for Hannukah. “My favorite part is when we sing songs and we have a nice Hannukah meal and we’re with the family,” she says. “We have potato pancakes and jelly rolls. We reminisce — how it was.”

It’s also a time to remember loved ones, like Elaine’s late mother. She was an amazing cook and the supervisor in the kitchen of a nearby elementary school. Elaine fondly recalls the evenings she’d come home from her own job and find her mother making dinner. “I used to get off the elevator when I was done working and the hall would smell so good,” she says.

Elaine has lived in the same apartment on the Lower East Side for 70 years. She moved in as a young woman in 1955 along with her parents and younger brother. Now — with her parents gone and her brother living with his family in Queens — it’s just Elaine. But she isn’t lonely, thanks to her neighbors.

“I know people from around here because I’ve been here a long time,” she says. “Everyone is friendly.” A few of them even visited Elaine in the hospital after a recent fall. “I never got married, but I have a beautiful community,” Elaine says. “That and meals on wheels keeps me going.”

She especially appreciates how Citymeals accommodates her cultural needs. “The kosher meals are outstanding — very, very good,” she says. “They send us packages for Passover. We celebrate with Citymeals on Wheels.”

Elaine has been receiving home-delivered meals for several years now. “The meals help me because I can’t use my hands like I’d like to,” she says. “I can’t prepare food like I used to.” She has a home health aide to help with household chores she can no longer do, like cleaning, but Citymeals ensures that Elaine has a meal always on hand. “It’s helping me to age in my elderly years,” she says.

A few weeks ago, while walking down the stairs to her apartment, Elaine tripped and reflexively grabbed the railing. It kept her from falling but fractured her wrist. Since then, Elaine has been seeing a physical therapist. “It’s helping me, the exercise,” she says. “I want to get back my strength.”

Elaine was a nurse for 26 years — primarily in the orthopedics department — so she knows how to help an injury like this heal. “I’m doing everything to make myself healthy,” she says. That also means following the advice of her doctor. “You have to listen to what the doctor tells you.” When it comes to getting older, 82-year-old Elaine has learned to take each day as it comes. “I’m not the same as I was,” she says, “but I’m adjusting the best I can.”