A little something I wrote back in 2016.

In celebration of my mom, Mary, on the centennial of her birth in the city that she loved and knew so well… born September 10, 1916, at home on East 74th Street in Manhattan.

She told me that the rooftops and streets of the Upper East Side were her playgrounds and the East River (THAT river!) was where they splashed in the heat of summer.

She would go on to become a secretary for some of the biggest corporations in America, which were headquartered in New York.

She would meet my dad (Paul) at the wedding of her best friend and fall in love with him at first sight. She married my dad on November 3, 1943, just a few blocks from where she grew up.

During the war, she worked at Columbia University and would go on to receive recognition for her work on the Manhattan Project (Silver A-Bomb Pin).

By the mid-1950s, she was a suburban housewife (not a bad thing to say then, but if you said it today, you’d catch heck) and was the best mom in the world to me… she was at every baseball game and at school functions, and she taught me the ropes of New York and life.

My mom was the strongest person I knew… in less than twenty years, she would lose the man she loved with all her heart and fight on to see me through those difficult years that came after.

Sadly, she left way too soon herself, but her love of the City, of life, of adventure, and her courage are with me today.

My mom’s Kodak from 1938 and the host of images she took with it are special to me. My mom’s and dad’s love of photography was passed down to me (foto DNA), and that remains an essential connection to them.

If you’ve read this through, I thank you… It is only a small gesture that I can make in her memory today.

Image 1: Her camera.

Image 2: 1960 street photography. Me with my first camera.

Image 3: Mom with her bestie, Anne, in 1939.

Image 4: Mom and Dad in 1961 on a second honeymoon in Rio.

Image 5: 1976, Jensen Beach, Florida, just before I left for Japan.

Thanks for stopping by, Chris

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