Jan 15, 2024 · 7:00 AM
Why We Keep This
Families scatter. Hard drives fail. Photo albums fade in attics. I started Heirloom because I watched my father's stories live in only a handful of minds, and I…
By Elena Chen-Rivera
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Letters, memories, and oral histories written by the family — spanning immigration, love, gatherings, and everything after.
Apr 2, 2018 · 8:00 AM
Last Conversations with Yéye
In the spring of 2018 I sat with Yéye every Thursday afternoon with a recorder and a notebook. He was seventy-eight and tired, but his stories were sharp. He ta…
By Sophia Park
Aug 16, 2008 · 8:00 AM
The First Big Reunion Picnic
By 2008 the family had sprawled across three boroughs and two time zones. We decided on a picnic in Flushing Meadows — the same park where Mom and Dad had wande…
By Elena Chen-Rivera
Nov 9, 1996 · 7:00 AM
The Proposal in the Library
Elena worked evenings at the Flushing branch. I designed community buildings for a living and kept inventing reasons to visit the reference desk. On a rainy Nov…
By David Park
Jul 20, 1985 · 8:00 AM
Summer in San Juan, 1985
The summer I turned twelve, Mom took Elena and me to San Juan for three weeks while Dad stayed with the shop. It was the first time I understood that half of wh…
By Miguel Chen-Rivera
Mar 3, 1978 · 7:00 AM
The Shop on Roosevelt Avenue
I signed the lease on a narrow storefront on Roosevelt Avenue in February 1978. Carmen said I was crazy. Elena was eight and asked if she could help choose the …
By Wei Chen
Aug 22, 1970 · 8:00 AM
Wedding Day, Flushing Meadows
Mom and Dad were married on a humid August afternoon in Flushing. The reception was in the church basement — fold-out tables, paper flowers, and a reception Wei…
By Elena Chen-Rivera
Jun 14, 1968 · 8:00 AM
The Dance at St. Mark's
I was twenty-three, finishing nursing school, and my cousin dragged me to a community dance at St. Mark's Church in the East Village. I almost stayed home. Than…
By Carmen Rivera Chen
Sep 12, 1965 · 8:00 AM
A Suitcase and a Promise
In September 1965, Wei Chen stepped off a freighter in Brooklyn with one suitcase, a letter of introduction to a shop in Queens, and a promise he had made to hi…
By Sophia Park