Miracle on 47th Street: A Heartwarming Holiday Encounter

Yesterday I took a late-morning train into New York. A young woman sat beside me with a rolling suitcase. Once she got arranged we started talking. She lives in Connecticut and was going into the city to meet her boyfriend of the past four years. He now lives, temporarily she hoped, in North Dakota. Let's call her Maria Theresa (not her real name).

They were meeting at a hotel across the street from my office, and she said they wanted to go look at engagement rings, in the famous Diamond District on West 47th Street, where Orthodox Jews run most of the stores. The place totally shuts down on Friday afternoon.

"I figure we can go look tomorrow," she said innocently, referring to Saturday.

"Um, you might want to go today," I told her. "They're, um, religious Jews who don't work on Saturday."

This surprised Maria Theresa. "Not even during the Christmas season, for the shoppers?"

The question gave me pause. Visions of pious Jews in elf hats danced through my head, with their merry cries of "Hoy, hoy, hoy, come on Bubbelah buy her that ring so we can lock up shop and get to Kabbalat Shabbat services."

I finally said, "I don't think they'll be open. Maybe one or two, but don't get your hopes up. He can always take you to Tiffany's."

She smiled at the Tiffany's reference, but underneath I sensed her alarm at the potential for holiday disaster. The ring-shopping window of opportunity was closing fast. Once we got to Grand Central I checked my watch. It was only 1:30 pm. "Look," I said encouragingly, "the guys on 47th Street should still be open until maybe 4 pm. Go to the hotel, grab your boyfriend and get right over there."

Maria Theresa liked this idea and I steered her out the time-saving north entrance of Grand Central Terminal and walked her to her hotel on Lexington Avenue.

"If you go now, you should have time to look around at different stores," I said. "You want to give yourself plenty of time. It's a big occasion. It's not like you're shopping for chicken gizzards."

She appreciated my guidance in the mysterious ways of New York's specialty retailers.

"Anything I can do for the cause of love," I said, as she went her way and I went mine, two souls thrown together for a New York minute.