We said goodbye to Brooklyn and it makes me so sad to think about. Spencer and I both knew this day would come, but it came a lot quicker than i expected. We had been looking to move pre-COVID, but sort of as a thought, not an action. We always like to look at houses and see what is out there, and so we had been looking at different places, especially New Canaan, CT. Then after COVID was here and we realized how bad New York was and that schools were most likely not going back in person in the fall, we decided to look more into moving. The schools in New Canaan are supposedly the best around and we had heard great things about the good community and strong LDS population there. So the more we thought about it, the more we knew we needed to make a decision fast before school started back up in the fall. While we were on vacation this summer, we cleaned out our apartment really well in hopes that a realtor could help us find someone to rent out our place. At the same time we found a realtor up in New Canaan to FaceTime and make videos of different houses for rent in the area. We knew we wanted to rent the first year to learn more about the town and make sure it was a good fit for us. Luckily, very fast after, we founds one tenants for our apartment and found a place in New Canaan to rent. It happened all too fast to even think much about it. But I think that is a good thing. I didn't have much time to say goodbye to friends (though I wouldn't be able to anyway because of the pandemic and most friends had already moved) and I didn't have much time to think about what we were actually doing. Something I am really grateful for is that friends were already moving out so that made me feel good and that I wasn't missing much and that New York and Brooklyn were really struggling as it was so I felt like I left on a happy/sad note. I knew it would be better to leave to find a good school and community for the girls and I feel like we left Brooklyn at a good time when I knew we weren't missing much by leaving.
But still, all of that said, I still miss Brooklyn terribly. It was my HOME. I DID New York. I LIVED it all in. SOAKED it up. I LOVED it and the people and the food. Oh the food! I loved the energy, our cute apartment, our neighbors and friends. I loved meeting up at the playground, going to Prospect Park, walking to the girls' school, post office and restaurants. I loved pushing my stroller around our neighborhood and meeting friends, especially the Murphys, whenever we had a chance. I really love Brooklyn and the city. It was such a change from Winthrop, Rexburg and Lehi, but I took it all in and really felt like a lived in the moment and never looked back. We took advantage of every sunny day, every free event, every summer warm night on our roof. We played hard, saw fireflies at night, endured the hard times New York would throw in your face and loved it back anyway. We were very active in our ward and I loved our ward so much. There was so much love and no judgement at all. There were people in that ward in all walks of life that were there trying their best and doing what they could to love God and others. With Spencer being Bishop, we got to help so many people and see so many circumstances. People loved us back and we made some friendships that I will never forget. There was sweet Agatha from Ghana that loved our girls. Sister Lo who always brought candy for the girls. PierreLand and her sweet girls that were the kindest ever. There was Sister Viera who was ALL 3 of the girls' nursery teachers who was so organized and always did fun things with them. I could go on and on and will one day write down everyone I met and how they impacted me. I want to remember them and all their goodness. There was countless acts of service and love. Spencer helped so many people as Bishop from a man struggling with same-sex attraction, to depression, to deaths and births to divorces and marriages. He helped people with no money, people struggling to make ends meet, people struggling with their faith and others that just needed to talk and talk and talk some more. He visited people with bed-bugs (which I would make him strip all his clothes in the lobby of our building before coming into our apartment), he visited the sick and dying. It was such a blessing in our life and we learned so much from the people. They cooked the BEST food too! We were recipients of some yummy jerk chicken, baked turkey, Haitian food, Chineese dumplings, and Filipino spaghetti. Ah I love that ward!
On one of our last nights there, we went up to our roof with our friends and watched the sunset and grilled some good food. It was a beautiful Brooklyn night. The next day, I ran over the Brooklyn Bridge and into Manhattan and then back over the Manhattan bridge. I ran around Prospect Park and took pictures along the way. I wanted to remember everything about it. The smells, the sights, the sounds. On my way back up Franklin Street I just walked and took pictures of all our favorite things on the street. Our favorite food, grocery store. hardware store and bagel place. I took a picture of our building and all the memories that we made in that tiny apartment.
The one thing I always tell people that I loved about Brooklyn was the energy. I loved walking outside and hearing blaring music from cars, trumpets playing form stoops, cars honking and people out and about walking, talking, laughing. The energy was always alive no matter the time. I loved walking around in the evening and seeing people eating together, talking together, sitting on stoops and being happy. I love walking to all my favorite places. I love being at Prospect park and pushing my stroller all around the town. It was hard. Stairs with a stroller was hard. Pushing groceries in the snow was hard. But I loved it because of that. It truly was such a remarkably experience and I would do it all over again. When we left our apartment, I told Spencer to promise me that we would come back and live in New York when our youngest graduates. So I guess we will see what happens when that times comes. Only one can hope!
