Personals

I promised I\’d call her the next evening, but I never did. For five days, I felt guilty, but what could I do? To make the commitment to call Jenny Lerner is like signing on to a weekend of aerobics; you really want it — the challenge, the learning opportunities — but when the time comes, you take a rain check. Jenny talks and talks, rails against injustices, sings songs or reads from the Torah. Conversations go on for hours, and if one doesn\’t insist that it\’s time to go — my house is burning down, Jenny; sorry, gotta hang up — she can go on until dawn. She\’s got that kind of energy. I have a family to take care of; sometimes it\’s weeks before I can call. She has other friends, yes, but, basically, Jenny is like so many other lonely, older people in this city — she could drop dead one day, and no one would know.