Gathered in the Moment

New York City - I'd always wanted to go there. 

My traveling buddy, Monica, had a friend with an apartment on the Upper West Side...or was it the Lower East Side...who knows?  I do remember that it was 1 block away from Central Park and in a very nice part of town.  I fell in love with the city.

I was fortunate to visit New York with a great friend - a friend that had been there before and knew her way around.  We played the tourist game, taking a boat tour on the Hudson River, taking pictures of the Madison Avenue street signs just to take home to my daughter, purchasing expensive shoes at Bloomingdales and catching a Broadway musical.

In the Heights was absolutely fantastic - I hated for it to end!  The characters, the music, it was magical.  Monica and I dressed up and took the subway to Broadway.  We took pictures in Grand Central Station, had late night dinners at swanky restaurants and late morning breakfasts at trendy diners. 

The trip was also filled with humorous and zany moments.  We had taken a taxi to an ever-so-fancy hip New York restaurant and as I stepped out of the cab in a sexy little black number, my heel caught in a grate in the sidewalk and I sprawled to the ground, my purse flying open.  The pain of twisting my ankle was overshadowed by the horror I experienced as a very handsome man bent down to help me up - handing me my small clutch purse and a handful of contents he had picked up off the sidewalk:  lipstick, ID, tampon.  Enough said.

However, the trip will forever be remembered for another moment in time.  Monica and I had just exited our Broadway show and stepped into the epi-center of the city:  Times Square.  I was in awe.  The lights, the people, the electric energy. 

We noticed that the street was being blocked off by gray fences and there were people lining the sidewalks with signs. Something was going on.  I asked Monica, "Is someone famous nearby?  What's going on?"  She shrugged back at me.

We continued to walk, pushing our way up the sidewalk into the center of Times Square.  Cars were driving slowly up the streets, with windows down, music blaring out as dangling arms swung in rhythm to the music.  Still - we had no idea what we had stumbled upon.

A woman in front of me turned ever so slightly to reveal a cardboard sign with the letters RIP Michael Jackson written in black marker.  We looked up - a larger than life movie screen showed a silhouette of Michael Jackson and the story began to unfold.  Monica and I had stumbled upon a memorial of sorts - it was the day Michael Jackson had died and the city began to flood with mourning fans - some crying, some celebrating by playing his music on car stereos and handheld boom boxes.  As we walked along the streets, my friend and I realized that every story we walked into, every restaurant played Michael Jackson music on a loop.  We were frozen, just feet below the MTV studios on the day a music icon passed from this world.  We were taken in - physically embraced by the overwhelming outpour of compassion for a lost soul. 

An increase in police presence was evident and a thought passed through my mind "Might there be a riot?"  No riot.  Just a lot of people - here to pay their respects.  People continued to come for hours - Monica and I found a place to sit and we watched and the scene was moving - some singing, others sharing stories.  Every now and then an audible "I just can't believe it," could be heard among the crowd.  A gathering of fans mourning the loss of their idol.  The large screen continued to flash enormous images of the star - and we all just watched and gathered together in the moment.