Goodbye Mitch Lerner

The San Francisco park system offers the possibility of remembering a loved one by purchasing a bench with a plaque in one of the city parks. A lovely idea. (Though sobering when I discovered it costs $10,000!). 

 

There is a bench in the Fragrance Garden of the Arboretum in Golden Gate Park that I particularly enjoy sitting on. It’s dedicated to someone named Mitch Lerner. I never met him, don’t know anything about him other than that he was born close to my birth year and died too young. But after all these years of sitting there, I’ve felt a certain bond with him, a kind of imaginary friend who I greet by name each time I go there to sit.

 

So today I bought some new shoelaces and thought, “I’m going to go visit Mitch and put on my new shoelaces on his bench.” Imagine my shock when there was a brand new bench there with someone else’s name on it! What happened to Mitch?! Gone altogether or moved somewhere else? In either case, why?

 

So I went to the Arboretum library to see if anyone could answer my question. No, but they gave me the phone number of the head of operations. I called him and lo, he actually answered the phone and was very polite and sympathetic to my question. He said it’s likely that the bench was too old and their replacement policy was to open the space to a new bench and dedication. He was also willing to text me another phone number of someone who might know more.

 

Off I went, deciding to shelter on a cold day in the De Young Museum Café and weirdly, my wife was there! I sat down and told her the story and the man at the next table chimed in. “We have a bench in the Arboretum. I can probably answer your question.”

 

“Please do.”

 

The scoop is that when you buy a bench, it is good for 15 years and then can be renewed or not. I suspect that Mitch’s time was up. 

 

So long, Mitch, it was good to know you. And in case you’re wondering, I don’t think I’ll bond with your replacement. I’ll just find another place to sit.