Beloved Upper East Side doorman retiring after 61 years of service
UPPER EAST SIDE, Manhattan (WABC) -- After six decades of hellos, a longtime doorman on the Upper East Side is saying one final goodbye.
Thursday marked Manny Teixeria's last day at his post at 120 E. 90th Street.
"He knows everyone on the block, he knows everyone who walks by who don't live here...it's like the whole neighborhood knows him," resident Gill Winnik said.
Teixeria spent the day reflecting on his 61 years of service at the same building where his father served as a super after his parents came to the U.S. in 1955 from Brazil.
"My father told me 'Manny you have to work hard, this is a great country, you have to work hard,'" Teixeria said.
And so he did.
He served thousands of residents like Susan George who moved out of the building with her two boys in 1965, but returned Thursday to say thank you.
"We appreciated him so much, he was always friendly, always helpful, and sometimes it helps to revisit the past," George said.
Her son, Clarence, said he was 4 at the time he moved in, but still remembered Manny after all these years.
"It's hard to put a finger on it, it's almost undefinable, there's an innate kindness and he exudes something very special and very rare, and he was always like that," he said.
Teixeria said some of the residents were like family.
"A gentleman about 10 years later passed away and he had a female dog, and he left his dog in his will to me, so I had the dog for another nine years," Teixeria said.
Now Teixeria has a new lease on life.
"My wife has been bothering me the last 10 years to retire and I always postponed it, but it was time," he said.
They live In Kearney, New Jersey. And he is happy to say goodbye to the 2:30 a.m. wakeup call to commute.
"It comes a point time in your life you have to believe enough is enough," he said.
At 83 years young, the beloved doorman closes one but opens another.
"My wife already is getting me a list of things I should do around the house and on top of that I'll be walking a lot," he said.
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