New York, October 2005 – Anca at Eighty

Arrival in New York

I arrived in New York on October 29, 2005. The reason for the journey was clear: the following day Anca was turning eighty. To me, she was not merely my mother’s first cousin, but my favorite aunt, and I had in turn been her favorite nephew. For many years we had shared a special emotional bond, preserved across time, countries, and separations.

As usual, I stayed with Anca and Tibi in their Manhattan apartment. I slept in the second bedroom, the room that had once belonged to Aunt Ițu, Anca’s mother and my grandmother’s sister. It was one of those details that kept their home from feeling foreign to me. In the middle of New York, that room preserved a continuity of family life.

A Birthday Above the City

On October 30, Tibi organized the birthday celebration at Rockefeller Center, in a restaurant on the top floor. The panorama over New York was impressive. The city spread out around us, luminous and dense, while about fifteen guests had gathered inside.

Many came from the circle of Bebi, Tibi’s sister. I was the special guest and sat at the main table beside Anca. What mattered most was not the setting itself, spectacular though it was, but the fact that this celebration marked eighty years in the life of someone who, since my youth, had been a source of support and continuity for me.

The skating rink and the statue of Prometheus at Rockefeller Center — Fig. 1. The skating rink and the statue of Prometheus, Rockefeller Center.

Luca at Rockefeller Center — Fig. 2. At Rockefeller Center before the birthday celebration.

Luca and Anca at the birthday table — Fig. 3. With Anca at the birthday table.

The guests at Anca’s birthday celebration — Fig. 4. The group of guests.

Anca’s birthday moment — Fig. 5. The birthday moment.

The Celebration Continues with the Family

The following day, the celebration continued at the home of Dragoș, Anca’s nephew through her elder brother. Dragoș was married to Kathy, who ran an agency promoting opera singers. If the evening at Rockefeller Center had carried a certain solemnity, the gathering at home was closer and warmer, naturally centered around the table.

The photographs capture this change of atmosphere: Kathy holding Anca by the arm, the family gathered together, the cake, and then Tibi congratulating her. It was the same birthday, but in a different key—less ceremonial and more intimate.

Fig. 7. The family gathered around the table.

On another day I met Kathy, Bebi, and Bebi’s daughter Susi at a restaurant in Midtown. The photograph shows the three women; I was, naturally, on the other side of the camera.

Bebi, Kathy, and Susi at a restaurant in Midtown Manhattan — Fig. 10. Bebi, Kathy, and Susi at a restaurant in Midtown.

Anca, Bebi, and Tibi at breakfast — Fig. 11. Anca, Bebi, and Tibi having breakfast in the living room on November 1, 2005.

In Anca and Tibi’s Home

Their apartment felt familiar to me for reasons that went beyond my repeated visits. The living room, Anca’s bedroom, my room, and the view toward Manhattan formed a space in which several periods of the family’s history met. Aunt Ițu had once lived in the room where I slept. From the living-room window one could see a dense, vertical New York crossed by streets and rooftops.

Fig. 12. The living room of Anca and Tibi’s apartment.

The room where Luca slept — Fig. 13. My room, the apartment’s second bedroom and once Aunt Ițu’s room.

Manhattan seen from the living room — Fig. 14. Manhattan seen from the living-room window.

A second view of Manhattan — Fig. 15. Another view of the city from the same living room.

Metropolitan Museum

After the birthday celebration I wandered through New York on my own. It was neither my first encounter with the city nor with the Metropolitan Museum. For that very reason, my walk did not have the hurried pace of a tourist intent on checking sights off a list. I stopped wherever something caught my attention and took photographs without a predetermined plan.

At the Metropolitan Museum I was drawn to the galleries themselves and to several works that I photographed: the dramatic group Ugolino and His Sons by Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux, Bird in Space by Brâncuși, a painting by Modigliani, and Eternal Springtime by Rodin. In the photograph of the latter, the background includes The Birth of Venus by Alexandre Cabanel—an accidental yet highly fitting dialogue between sculpture and painting.

Interior of the Metropolitan Museum — Fig. 16. The atmosphere inside the Metropolitan Museum.

Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux, Ugolino and His Sons, at the Metropolitan Museum — Fig. 17. Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux, *Ugolino and His Sons*, Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Constantin Brâncuși, Bird in Space — Fig. 18. Constantin Brâncuși, *Bird in Space*.

Fig. 19. A painting by Amedeo Modigliani.

Auguste Rodin, Eternal Springtime, with The Birth of Venus by Alexandre Cabanel in the background — Fig. 20. Auguste Rodin, *Eternal Springtime*, with *The Birth of Venus* by Alexandre Cabanel in the background.

Alone Through Central Park

Central Park was deep in autumn. I walked alone and unhurried among trees, rocks, and the sheen of the water. In the photographs the city appears sometimes close at hand, sometimes only suggested through the branches or beyond the lake. It was not an escape from New York, but one of its most recognizable forms: nature preserved within a metropolis that never ceases to make its presence felt.

Luca on a rock in Central Park — Fig. 21. In Central Park beneath the autumn trees.

Autumn landscape in Central Park — Fig. 22. Central Park in autumn colors.

The lake in Central Park — Fig. 23. The lake and the autumn foliage.

Luca beside the lake in Central Park — Fig. 24. Beside the lake, with the city in the background.

Luca near Belvedere Castle — Fig. 25. Near Belvedere Castle.

Rediscovering the City

I spent the remaining days wandering on my own. Fifth Avenue, Times Square, Lincoln Center, and Columbus Circle were already familiar places, but a city such as New York cannot be exhausted in a single visit. Each time it changes its rhythm, its light, and its face.

At Columbus Circle I entered The Shops and photographed both the space seen through the glass façade and one of Fernando Botero’s sculptures. Between Anca’s birthday and these solitary walks, the journey thus acquired two registers: one familial, warm, and intimate, and another urban, in which I encountered New York again at my own pace.

Fig. 26. Atlas and Saint Patrick’s Cathedral on Fifth Avenue.

Luca at Lincoln Center — Fig. 28. At Lincoln Center.

Fig. 29. Columbus Circle seen through the glass façade of The Shops.

Fig. 30. A sculpture by Fernando Botero at The Shops at Columbus Circle.

Seen after many years, this journey does not remain in my memory through any single place. It remains through Anca at eighty, through Tibi beside her, through Bebi and the other members of the family, through Aunt Ițu’s room, and through the city seen from the living-room window. New York was the backdrop, but the true center of the journey was the family.

Luca Dan Șerbănați

Emeritus Professor at Politehnica University of Bucharest

Research, teaching, industry and memoirs