Richard W. shared a stream on February 8, 2023

OPA Monday at Ambeli Greek Taverna!

Estimated reading time: 1 minute, 18 seconds

OPA Monday at Ambeli Greek Taverna!

Monday, I dined at a table for one at Ambeli Greek Taverna in Cranford, NJ, my favorite Greek restaurant.

Although I was at a table for one, I was not alone.

Jan was with me and always will be with me, and I dined in the friendliest restaurant in America.

Chris Zavolas, the owner and one of the performers, greets his guests like family members!

When I walked in, Chris hugged me and told me how happy he was to have me dine in his restaurant.

Chris is a professional musician, which is something I learned on Monday!

Jan and I have eaten in the restaurant for years and have known Chris and his family as friends.

When Jan was in the hospital, Chris supported me in ways I could never fully express my appreciation. During my grief journey, he was and still is helping me.

My feet danced like a ballerina the half block to my home, and music filled my heart and soul.

The Jan Lilien Education Fund sponsors ongoing sustainability and environmental awareness programs. Gifts made this month; I will match dollar-for-dollar. All donations are tax-deductible.

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Table for Six

Table for Six or Two or One!

Last night, I had dinner with five widows, and in the morning, I had breakfast in a booth with two friends.

Tonight I might dine alone as it is Cranford's Winter Restaurant Week.

Of course, if I dine at Ambeli Greek Taverna, my favorite local dining room, I am confident for a few moments that the owner and my friend Chris will join me for a few moments.

One of the concerns I hear from my fellow widows is the awkwardness of dining alone.

Even when Jan was alive, I often dined alone while away on business.

Richard W. Brown January 30, 2023

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My random thoughts on love, grief, life and all things considered.

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1944: FDR and the Year That Changed History

Read: October 2019

1944: FDR and the Year That Changed History

by Jay Winik

1944: FDR and the Year That Changed History by Jay Winik is a book that I had put off reading several times. When I finally did read it, I could not remember why I had not read it sooner. Had I gone to graduate school and become a professor, it might have been the type of book I might write, and I certainly would have had on my list of books for my classes.

As The NY Times wrote, “Jay Winik brings to life in gripping detail the year 1944, which determined the outcome of World War II and put more pressure than any other on an ailing yet determined President Roosevelt.” Reading a book about events five years before my birth that transformed the world I live in becomes an easy page-turner.

It was not inevitable that World War II would end as it did or that it would even end well. Nineteen forty-four was a year that could have stymied the Allies and cemented Hitler’s waning power. Instead it saved those democracies – but with a fateful cost. Now, in a superbly told story, Jay Winik, the acclaimed author of April 1865 and The Great Upheaval, captures the epic images and extraordinary history as never before.

1944 witnessed a series of titanic events: FDR at the pinnacle of his wartime leadership as well as his reelection, the planning of Operation Overlord with Churchill and Stalin, the unprecedented D-Day invasion, the liberation of Paris, and the horrific Battle of the Bulge, and the tumultuous conferences that finally shaped the coming peace. But on the way, millions of more lives were still at stake as President Roosevelt was exposed to mounting evidence of the most grotesque crime in history, the Final Solution. Just as the Allies were landing in Normandy, the Nazis were accelerating the killing of millions of European Jews.

Winik shows how escalating pressures fell on an all but dying Roosevelt, whose rapidly deteriorating health was a closely guarded secret. Here then, as with D-Day, was a momentous decision for the president. Was winning the war the best way to rescue the Jews? Was a rescue even possible? Or would it get in the way of defeating Hitler? In a year when even the most audacious undertakings were within the world’s reach, including the liberation of Europe, one challenge – saving Europe’s Jews – seemed to remain beyond Roosevelt’s grasp.

I recommend this book.

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