Ramona Lee- It's a Wonderful Life

Ramona Lee Pastry Shop on Hempstead Turnpike in Franklin Square was recommended to me by a fellow GC resident. With no Italian bakery in the nabe, I checked it out back in March for St. Joseph's Day Italian pastry- which were great. Then, as a self-declared procrastinator, I found myself scrambling on Easter Sunday when I realized I had forgotten about dessert! So I called Ramona's.

Thankfully they were open and I dashed. Not only were they open on Easter Sunday afternoon but they had a surprisingly good amount of pastry and cakes on the shelves. It's a good sign when a business brings it's A game all the way to closing time… contrasted with a business that thinks it's OK to close 5 minutes before their advertised closing time (a pet peeve). Of course, this usually happens on a day that you're pulling into the parking lot 5 seconds before closing time after making a Dukes-of-Hazard-like effort to get there.

After selecting my pastry and cake, I was informed that they don't take credit cards (small check for Ramona Lee in the negative column). Of course, I only had credit cards. When will I learn? Another customer stepped in and graciously offered to pay my $30 tab. I took her address to mail her a check, but Rose said she didn't want me to pay her back. It was Easter after all and I should simply pay it forward.

I was touched by her generosity and texted Rose's address to myself with a note to mail a check on Monday. Strangely enough on Monday morning, I mistakenly erased a ton of data in my phone. Of course I did. This couldn't have had anything to do with user error, right??

After an hour on the phone with tech support, most of the data was restored except for all text messages I received on Sunday. Naturally. Sadly, Rose's address was gone.

I called the bakery but they didn't know her name. Facebook and Google turned up nothing. Where's this internet-induced violation of privacy when you really need it? I only remembered the street and her first name. With that I drove to Franklin Square and asked the first person I saw on her street if she knew of Rose. Crazy enough, Rose happened to live in the house next door and was just getting home from work. With my debt paid and hugs and thank yous exchanged, I was off again.

While this doesn't exactly qualify as the Easter version of  "It's a Wonderful Life" this type of generosity did put me in the Easter spirit and provides another reason to keep Ramona Lee on the short list of bakeries near GC.


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