My First Visit to Walpan

I think it was Monday, March 12, that I found Nikky. I had just returned on the 10th from a one week retreat in Maya Tulum, Mexico, that had been very transformative. The retreat was led by Kelly Morris , and Alyssa Scheunneman , on the Buddhist concept of emptiness. We had meditated for an hour each day followed by a 3 hour yoga practice (with breakfast inbetween!) Realizing emptiness is to see how the world really works, so that we can become like angels who can help an unlimited amount of people live lives free from suffering. It seemed like no accident that I found Nikky two days after coming home from this retreat.

I went to visit Nikky the next day at Walpan Residence. Walpan is a big old dutch colonial house on a residential street. It was probably once a gracious mansion, but is now divided up into many rooms for the 17 seniors who live there. It is a soft yellow with big white columns and is set back and raised up on a hill that slopes gently up from the sidewalk. To the right of the center hallway, is a sunny dining room, and to the left, the kind of living room you would find in your great-grandmother's house.

Nikky was sitting in the dining room at what I learned was her table, looking out of the window. I later learned that she often sits there from the end of breakfast through lunch, unless someone leads her back to her room. I sat down next to her and gave her a big smile and a hello. She smiled back at me, "Oh, hello," but there was no recognition. I told her the story of how we met, and she was so surprised. "How did I get there," she asked? And we just smiled about it. I had brought two plastic photo albums with me, and asked her if we could put her pictures in them. "What pictures," she asked. "Let's see if you have pictures in your purse," I suggested. We opened it up (she doesn't go anywhere without that purse), and she seemed surprised to find so many pictures inside. We looked at each one, and had the same conversation about them that we had had the day before. Slowly, we put them in the plastic albums. I wrote her name, address and phone number on stickers, and we put them on the inside jackets of the albums. She slowly read the stickers. "That's my name!" she said. "I live in Montclair?" she asked. Yes, I said.

I gave Nikky a picture of me, Freddie, Mariel and Samy to put in her album. "What beautiful girls," she said. "You're my friend, my good friend," she told me. "God love you."