It was his grandmother's apartment, but he lived there most of his life. When Granny left, he laid her out in the living room. She might have been gone, but the plastic wrapped furniture and knick-knicks lived on. He was an artist who had the good fortune of having an apartment in the Lower East side handed down to him, and considering what the price of rentals in Stuyvesant Town had become in the 40 years they've lived in their apartment, a pretty decent rent. Still, even a "decent" rent in Manhattan can easily become unaffordable when one loses their full-time employment, a harsh reality to face after a decade of walking the court halls.
In his 50's, locating employment was not an easy task. With no job to be found, he took the suit off, put on his bowler hat, and got back to his easel. It was no longer the 80's or 90's when local artists had galleries in their grasp and at their disposal. Along with many neighborhood haunts demolished to make way for expensive condos and co-ops, the familiar galleries are long gone, gone, gone. Based on rents, sales, and the over all cost of living, New York has become a city for the rich. He was far from rich.
Sales proved to be slow, but he felt blessed his wife's career was secure. Having the choice of living with his wife in her small in size, but huge in character co-op and garden, or, alone with paint and memories, was not a hard choice to make. Even though his apartment was used primarily as his studio, giving it up could never be an option.
He didn't keep it pristine like she did, but remnants of Granny remained throughout. Sometimes when he did sleep there he swore he could almost hear her rustling in the kitchen. Besides, how could he give it up when there's no way all of his art stuff could ever fit in his wife's compact apartment. If he had anything to do with it, divorce would also never be an option, so he had to think up a way to make his rent. He thought a roommate would be the answer. So he wrote an ad on Craigslist, and shortly thereafter he got a response...
...to be continued
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