I took Sols Moby-Dick down off the little shelf he built by the window, and the folded paper inside was not a lease, it was a letter from the original landlord, Mr. Abramowitz, to Sol, dated 1968, with a notarized page clipped to it and a line about the tenant in 4B and her heirs, and I called information on a hunch and asked if there was still an Abramowitz on Prospect Park West, and when the man picked up and I said Sols name, he said, my grandfather told me about apartment 4B my whole life.
The new owner had stood in my doorway and told me my rent was a crime, that theyd offer me fifty thousand to leave, that if I did not take it theyd renovate around me, no heat, no hot water, jackhammers, that people my age do not last long like that.
He did not know what Mr. Abramowitz promised Sol in 1968.
The original landlord, grateful to Sol for something Sol did for his family long ago, granted Sol and me and our heirs the right to live in apartment 4B for our lifetimes at our protected rent, in a notarized agreement recorded in 1968, binding on every future owner of the building.
Sol painted the kitchen yellow our first week in 1968, and Mr. Abramowitz, who owed Sol a kindness I will keep between the two of them, made sure we would never be forced out, and put it in writing before a notary, and Sol kept it inside his Moby-Dick, the book he loved best, where he knew Id look someday.
A notarized 1968 agreement granting a lifetime tenancy binds the building no matter who buys it, and rent-stabilization law protects me besides. The new owners threats were not just cruel, they were illegal, and the harassment they described is a crime in this city.
The grandson of Mr. Abramowitz came to my yellow kitchen, read his grandfathers letter, and wept, and then he called a tenants-rights lawyer he knew and told her the whole story, and she took my case for almost nothing.
When the new owner came back, I did not argue. I handed him a copy of the notarized 1968 agreement and the lawyers letter and I said, think about the money, you said, at my age. Heres what to think about. My husband and I have a lifetime right to this apartment, notarized in 1968 and binding on you, and what you threatened is illegal harassment, and I have a lawyer and the original landlords own grandson on my side. Renovate the building around 4B, and keep the heat on while you do.
The buyout offer vanished. The harassment never started. The lawyer made sure of it.
One way or another in Sols yellow kitchen, he had said. It stayed yellow. Sols books are still on the shelf he built by the window, and I still sit at the kitchen table where I read Mr. Abramowitzs promise, in the apartment a grateful man made sure would be ours for life.