Last week I
read the obituary of Helen Klaben Kahn, whose claim to fame was that after high school she moved
to Alaska for adventure, and a year later, on a flight to California, the small
plane carrying only her and a pilot crashed and they were marooned for 49 days
before rescue. A few years later, she wrote a book, Hey, I’m Alive, which was made into a TV movie.
I read the
obit because Helen was my age, 76. But what provoked my memory is that she grew
up in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn. I lived in Bensonhurst from ages 5 to 8, and one of
my best friends was named Helen.
What are
the odds that these two Helens are the same? I could go to the New York Public Library,
where city phone books are available on microfilm, to see whether someone with
the last name Klaben lived on 75th or 76th Street around the corner from 20th
Avenue in Brooklyn. And if she is?
It’s too
late to make contact with her. But I could write something, fictional or non,
about her, and me, and Alice, my other friend.
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It’s
Slice of Life Tuesday over at Two
Writing Teachers. Check out this encouraging and
enthusiastic writing community and their slices of life every Tuesday. And add
one of your own.
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