The OGT Daily #75 The Bronx

Seventy-five days!  That's what I'm talkin' about.  Anyway, today I was up early and down the Hutchinson Parkway to a medical appointment before 8 am in the the Bronx - 'da Broncs'. 

The Bronx River flows through the largest and oldest old growth forest in NYC 

Then driving home just before 9 am in the eastern part of the borough, while sitting in a long string of traffic on Eastchester Rd, I looked up through the rain to see the huge entrance and signage of the front of the Jack D. Weiler Pavilion for the Albert Einstein College of Medicine.  A wave of memories flooded through me. 33 years ago I was rushed there by my husband for the birth of our second child.  I pointed up at the rooms where I thought that had occurred almost in a reverie only to have the cars behind, in a hurry to get over to the parkway, honk me onward. 

The Bronx gets a bad wrap for being the poor cousin among the boroughs, but there are many reasons it makes my heart fond and it is my favorite borough by far.  First of all my mother was born there as well as my son. And my mother-in-law Nanette passed away quite peacefully at the famous Calvary Hospital hospice care in 2003 across the street from where my son was born at Albert Einstein.

My mother was born in Clason Point, a jutting section of the South Bronx close to Hunt's Point Market, that is surrounded by the East River. She contracted polio as a small child, they thought from swimming in the river, but survived to have ten children including me.

Then there are the Yankees and the Bronx Zoo. With the Bronx literally a 15 minute drive from our suburban home it was our closest contact with the city. My kids spent many a summer at the Bronx Zoo camp feeding the animals and doing a sleepover on the floor of the camp house on last night. I came to know the zoo like the back of my hand and where to park so I didn't have to pay the fees. 

There was our devotion to the Yankees of the 1990s, Derek Jeter and Mariano Rivera. To this day the Botanical Garden has become a yearly destination for me to see the orchid show.

I also credit the Bronx with initiating me in my career as an art therapist with my first internships working in psychiatric facilities like North Central Bronx Hospital and the Ittleson Center for Child Research. Both of these places had me face mental illness, poverty, and social injustice head on and taught me most of what I learned to become a competent clinician. 

The Bronx has a storied history, named after Jonas Bronck - a Swedish immigrant who settled the first European colony there. It is the poorest congressional district in the country but also one of the most culturally rich with immigrants from all over the world and many wonderful places to visit. I'm proud to say the Bronx is part of my history.

What makes you proud today?