Politics
‘We Exchanged Small Talk, and I Asked Him About the Hat’
Saving a treasured item from the trash, making summer plans and more reader tales of New York City in this week’s Metropolitan Diary.
His Wife’s Hat
Dear Diary:
I stepped into the elevator at my Upper East Side building. A friendly older neighbor was there carrying a hat and some tchotchkes.
He was going to the basement, and I was going to the lobby. We exchanged small talk, and I asked him about the hat.
His mood shifted from happy to looking like he was on the verge of tears. The hat had belonged to his wife, he said. She had died some time ago, and he was finally throwing it away.
I could feel his pain. It was a perfectly beautiful hat. I asked if I could have it.
He handed it to me, and I put it on.
“You have the perfect head for it,” he said.
I thanked him, and he smiled again.
— Carmela Marasigan
