I'm sitting on the uptown bus going to visit my grandmother. I'm in my 30's. I'm coming from work. As the bus heads down 181st Street from Henry Hudson, I see Joseph's Shoe store, the store that my baby shoes were bought.  The store that I bought both of my sons' baby shoes.

 

I have been on this street many times before, I've lived here as a child, and visited family here hundreds of times. But as I look out the grimy bus window, a thought enters my mind:

 

my mother's feet have touched the ground here.

 

She walked here.

It is an overwhelming thought.

 

It makes me feel connected to her and sad.

 

I know I carry her with me in my heart and my DNA, but still to know she walked these streets that I now walk on,

 

it's like being hugged.