Park Memory: Stan Friedmann/1950s

“I was born in 1953 and lived in the Fort Tryon Apartments until 1982. This picture of my dad, Heinrich Friedmann, and I was taken in the lower park on a stroll we took together. My Dad was a refugee from Vienna and a Holocaust Survivor. Our walks in the park were happy and hopeful times for us both. When he died in 1971 I mourned on the lawn in the upper park on that overlooks the Hudson when you enter the main entrance on Fort Washington Avenue. There was an area of Pine Trees there that provided solace and comfort to a grieving son. I will never forget it. Ten years later I was pushing my son Paul in his stroller all around the park that I grew to know and love so well as a boy and young man. I am 67 now and live in Bergen County but I visit often and recently took Paul’s young daughters to the park and The Met Cloisters for the first time. Another generation of the Friedmann family now shares the love of this magical home away from home.”