Contemplating Women and Children First on New York City's High Line

A Sunrise walk on NYC's High Line until my friend from the West Wendy came out East to visit me in 2019 with her daughter LaLa which she wanted to give a once in a lifetime trip to New York City and that included a trip Upstate to Seneca Falls where the mother and daughter could come and see my Airbnb, and so when I drove down to pick them up in NYC the loving mother and daughter raved and raved about the High Line and it took me learning of the tragic loss of LaLa in 2020 and missing that time in Oregon to grieve with my friend, as that would have required someone in my family in Oregon informing me of her tragic death, but for anyone who doesn't understand narcissistic abuse and the role of the scapegoat? It might seem odd that nobody informed me of this beautiful soul's passing. Not so. Narcissists's are all about the focus being on themselves, and to be there for another and honor their life? That doesn't support the narcissist looking good, and so if they know it will cause you pain by not informing you of the death of a friend's daughter? They will do that simply to be cruel, but I had an opportunity to think of Wendy and her daughter LaLa as I decided to explore NYC's High Line at dawn so I could I contemplate my own living children Max and Zoe Falk's roots to this very area where their grandfather once worked and built an empire, and it's hard for me to take in that I have a father in law who founded his dynasty here in NYC in the 20's and he was born in 1892. Ironically given the way things have gone awry since his death in July 1979 in Miami I wish I could have had a face to face with my fellow Libran father in law before he passed in Miami Dade in 1979 and I would have warned him that the wife he loved and the grandchildren he chose to enrich in his will were passed over by a patriarchy unlike himself, whom from what I can gather from historical records did care about women and children, but like the High Line in NYC original designs don't always work out, and your wish to honor your grandchildren was sadly stolen by your own son Michael Falk and Bruce Falk too who made sure his scapegoat daughter received nothing from you, she was banished to the public dole. There's a warning in there about men who build trusts to beat the laws of perpetuities and that other men use those very things and even your good intentions to seize power and forget all about the women and children, but not me. I hope as your daughter in law I would make you proud in fighting to wright a wrong.

Shannon Falk

1/7/20235 min read

Staring at the "Women and Children First" statue on the East? Boy can I relate to the High Line! We've had similar fates. People deemed us unworthy of saving, but unlike the 1.45 mile track that runs from the Hudson Yards to Chelsea in New York City's West Side? I don't come from the "West Side" of New York, I'm the born San Franciscan who says fuck you fate: I believe in destiny, and I guess being I married a guy in 1989 who was born in New York in 1950? Did I mention that fate's a strange thing? I contemplate fate and destiny this morning as the sun rises on the Hudson burning her light so brightly that the buildings become giant prisms.

West Side Manhattan Sunrise on the High Line

Sun Bouncing off Buildings along the High Line

People forget that In the mid 1800's the New York Central Railroad delivered food and not people on street level freight trains to lower Manhattan, but by 1910 the area was no Park Avenue. In fact the tracks had a nickname of "Death Avenue" due to the fact that over 540 pedestrians had lost their lives to the dangerous conditions around those tracks, and one must remember that back in those days these tracks weren't transporting people around the city, but rather freight. Sometimes I forget that my father in law Samual "Fortune" Falk was born in New York City in 1893 before there was electricity so the man didn't use cheap publicity like my father who pulled a stunts for the camera's on ABC news to get himself onto "Good Morning America" show in 1986 riding a Harley with a couple of his cohorts, Umm, I mean a CFO poser named Frank Grange to the beat of "Born to Be Wild"? Umm, seriously dude's? Did I mention I like a good laugh:) Casting aside my father I think how wild the East must've been before the turn of 19th century. In the 1920's when Samuel gave himself a middle name "Fortune" sometime back after the stock market crash in the 1920's, and fortunately? He was nothing like my father. He was self made, and had no help in making his fortune from his father. I know all about father's who act entitled. I have one of those. A guy who complained that he had to "buy" his business from my grandfather? So as I stand on these tracks? I think of a couple of old gentleman (my grandfather William Grey Willitts and my father in law Samuel "Fortune" Falk) both visionaries who worked hard and built something from nothing. I know much about the business of my grandfather; William Grey Willitts as I worked for him in Marin County at Willitts Imports in the 1970's up until his death in 1981, and so by the time of my first gift show in Sacramento? I had hoped one day to work my way up in "the trade" to New York and the Javits Center. Irony isn't lost on me today that these tracks on which I now stand? Yes they once stopped at the Javits Center. Long before my grandfather had added music boxes imported from Japan to the Devon Violets that were already coming from England, which he would display in New York at the Javits Center at the annual "gift show" and my grandfather's true gift? Well it wasn't what he imported, what's important about William Grey Willitts is that a "real" man respected me in the West. I still remember finding it odd that my own father pitched a fit in 1980's when God Forbid the man had to "buy" the business? The dude (my grandfather) after all had built something from nothing, and my father owning it by renaming it "Willitts Designs"? Joke. No joke, though I married a Falk who inherited his wealth from his father and mother in New York, and they didn't teach him how to work for a living, and so my father and my ex husband share that same sense of "entitlement" to things which they have not earned, and so when I think of Samuel and Gertrude Falk who built their fortune right here in New York where my father in law started as a gaslighter in Hell's Kitchen? I feel fortunate to be here in NYC 130 years later contemplating a statue named "Women and Children First" and realizing that my own children have an undeniable New York heritage that criss crosses many boroughs in New York. Like I said. Fate's a strange thing.

By 1924 the Transit Commission had ordered the removal of "Street Level" tracks, and elevated lines took their place. The first train on what is now called the High Line was first called the West Side Elevated Line in 1933 but it was still such a dangerous business that up until the 1940's the "West Side" Cowboys who patrolled the line to keep pedestrian's safe had given up on the line, a time when prosper in New York City was moved up to the "Transit Triangle" of Midtown, same place my children's grandfather inhabited

Give anything from a rail line to a person a chance at redemption. You'll be surprised what 100 years can do. What was once deemed "less" than in the 1920's is a NYC "Hot Spot" in the 2020's

Though "Pets" are forbidden on the High Line NYC is respectful of certified service animals. Especially for C-PTSD, trust me this is a city that "gets it" they've survived 9/11 so they are very kind and accepting of service animals like Gigi. We definitely had a blast and no airplanes in any buildings!