Memorial bench at St. Luke's Church Garden on Hudson Street

The bench is nearest the Hudson St. south garden, in the sun. Elizabeth liked to sit in the sun, so we chose the sunniest spot there. The plaque reads "In memory of Elizabeth G. Aakre."

How do you get there?
The Church of Saint Luke in the Fields is located at 487 Hudson Street, in Greenwich Village, New York City, at the intersection of Hudson Street and Grove Street. Directions are here at this link.

Garden Hours
NOTE – the closing times may vary due to Church and/or School functions.

Hudson Street North Garden Gate
(Main gate – 487 Hudson Street)
Monday- Saturday 7am-8pm; Sunday 7am-7pm.

Rector’s Garden Gate
Monday–Thursday 10am-5;30pm.

Barrow Street gate to South Garden
Daily 8am-8pm (dusk during the winter).

Hudson Street Gate to South Garden
Monday-Saturday 10am-8pm (dusk during the winter)
Sunday 11am-6:30pm

Photo by Helen Levitt, New York City circa 1940

I love this photo, and think she would have too. (Would she have said "Genius!"?)
I saw it in the New Yorker today. Lawrence Miller Gallery is having
a show of both Levitt's and Bresson's photographs. The NPR link
has an interview with Levitt who is still alive at 95 and
now photographs mostly farm animals.


NPR Interview with Helen Levitt

How She Played Badminton

She was fast,
she was strong,
she was canny, but mostly she had
the stamina to outlast you no matter how fast
you thought you could run
She could run faster
Her legs went on for miles
For every step that she took
you would have to take twenty
She was limber
and she could stretch down to the ground
and then up to the sky in a matter of seconds
How she dominated the court,
the net held up with two fallen branches from the maples out front
In her prime she did not rely on a net game
faking you out. She revelled in the chase, the running game,
and it was fun to indulge this passion
and challenge yourself to see how much you could run before she would outdo you.
Sending the birdie back to the same place
over and over again
(left corner was her weakness)
On long volleys I would send it there
and she would return to me
bang
Her wrist relaxed snapping the racket til it shot
the feathers across

The neighbor who took the game so seriously
called her devil child


She was invincible