The Indomitable Mrs. Gerney

Not good news

It amazes me to think there are people who are in their 30s, contemplating shedding their work-from-home casual clothes for their business casual clothes as they plan to go back into the office as the restrictions from the Covid-19 pandemic are lifted who were born after 1985, the year Brigitte Gerney survived having a crane topple on her and crushing her legs as she walked home from a dental appointment on Third Avenue between 63rd and 64th Streets on May 30. Time does fly.

It was big news at the time, and remained big news as she recovered, only to further her streak of bad luck/good luck when the doctor she was engaged to who had been treating her was killed by a disgruntled fireman seeking disability benefits at a Fire Department pension office. Brigitte had numerous occasions of bad luck/tragedy, followed by the good luck to overcome them even before the crane incident.

If you think there are astronomical odds of someone having a crane fall on them—and surviving, even eventually walking!—think how much further out in space those odds are when the person who it happened to was born in Liechtenstein and was walking on New York's East Side.

(I once sat next to a woman who was from Liechtenstein at a 'NYPL Live' presentation hosted by Paul Holdengräber with Rosanne Cash as his guest in 2016. I teased the woman that Liechtenstein is where all the real money is hidden. She said she knew nothing about that. It wasn't hers. New York is a crossroads.)

The afternoon of May 30th 1985 came back to me when I read Brigitte Gerney's obituary in today's NYT by Sam Roberts. I was working at 622 Third Avenue, between 40th and 41st Streets at the time and witnessed the mammoth traffic jam that was building on Third Avenue as rescue vehicles and cranes were rushed to the scene of the crane's collapse in an attempt to free the woman trapped under the crane, Brigitte Gerney. And after six hours she was extricated and rushed to Bellevue.

You can follow the links from the obituary and the original news story to fill in all the details.

Whatever star Brigitte was born under it allowed for her to absorb and recover from the death of a child, injuries from a cable car collapse, lung cancer, the death of her husband from colon cancer, the collapse of the crane on her and then the death of her fiancé, a doctor who treated her and who was part of a medical review board who was murdered by a fireman whose disability benefits were being deferred. You either sought Brigitte out when buying a lottery ticket, or you stayed away from her.   

Through it all, Brigitte was never anything but thankful and gracious. She said "On one hand, only in a place like New York does a crane fall on you when you are walking home from the dentist. On the other hand, only in New York would they shut down half the city, have these crazy, brave people crawl under a teetering crane to save you, and then have the best doctors in the world somehow rebuild your smashed legs."

That I know of, there is no plaque on the long-ago completed 42-story apartment building on Third Avenue whose foundation was being dug when the crane collapsed on Mrs. Gerney. There are many plaques put up in the city, but it is doubtful the builders and owners would like people to be reminded that they had something to do with an unlicensed crane operator filling in at the controls when the load was too heavy, causing the crane to topple forward.

Probably no matter. Brigitte would tell people she never again walked on that side of the street past the building anyway.

http://www.onofframp.blogspot.com