FYI “AND what is so rare as a day in June? Then, if ever, come perfect days; Then Heaven tries earth if it be in tune And over it softly her warm ear lays’ Whether we look, or whether we listen, We hear life murmur, or see it glisten;”
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orry, June does that to some people. It makes us break out in James Russell Lowell. Just seven days old as this is written, and June has already given us a taste of perfect days. Your editor’s days have been perfect also with material rolling in, so that putting this issue together has been quite effortless. More, more, more! Pat Doyle shares with us the activity of Leading Age to find a more perfect designation for the kind of place we live in. Norman Sissman tells us about two more stalwart committees and their devoted leaders that contribute to making life so pleasant at Kendal on Hudson. We have a reminiscence from Bill Smethurst. Gene Dubow suggests that we need to get to know more about one another. And Deborah O’Keefe remembers a grandmother we might all wish we had. Shirley Lobenthal photographed a Greek sculpture from the Pergamon exhibit at the Met. Horst Berger, who also prepared the photos for this issue, shows us the interconnectedness created by Project Renew of the spaces on the C and T levels. Martin Smolin caught this flock of sheep in Rockwood Park, and Tom Loemker keeps us abreast of progress with a picture of the construction of new bridge.
Joan Oltman
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Standing Pat
not much interest in talking about being old. They are “life style” focused, adventurous, much less risk-averse than prior generations. And based on the research they are not terribly intrigued by the idea of living in a place that focuses on “continuing CARE.”
“Continuing Care Retirement Community.” Does that really convey what we are and what we do? What does it suggest to people about who lives here, when they come, and WHY they come? Does it help or hinder our ability to attract people, and especially to attract younger prospects, and those of the next generation of potential residents?
Sounds like a nursing home...meant for very old people with medical needs...will not enable a vibrant, active lifestyle... those are the impressions that term creates, based on the research.
This month I want to share discussions that are taking place all across our profession about the descriptor we all use for communities such as Kendal on Hudson.
Those questions, which have been discussed for several years at state and national meetings - and within our system - led to a major effort by Leading Age, the national organization of homes and services for the elderly. Called “the Name Storm,” Leading Age engaged several of the most prominent research and marketing firms that serve senior living and began to do research. They focused not only on current residents and immediate prospects, but particularly on Baby Boomers. Why Boomers? Well, the oldest Boomer is 70 years old in 2016 - and the future occupancy of our communities will require that we appeal to this generation. What do we know about them? First, they don’t think they are old and have 2
The conclusion: the term is actually a barrier to generating interest, and a barrier to sales. So, Leading Age then undertook a huge effort, involving vast national research, brain storming, trademark searching, and testing to find another term. Not easy - because the term has to cover all forms of “CCRCs” - true life care communities like KoH, but also fee-for-service communities, and communities that don’t offer all four levels of care. The final outcome - Life Plan Communities. OK - so I don’t hear thunderous applause. But here’s what the research found: that phrase suggests that these
are places where people are planning for the continued enjoyment of life, not just the potential need for care. Simply by shifting to the concept of LIFE, rather than care...there is a significant increase in the level of interest that Boomers indicate in considering a community setting. Hmmmmm. That’s an important insight. In fact, relative to dozens of phrases, including 10 that made it to the “finals” - life plan community is most effective in communicating key ideas and impressions relative to all sorts of alternatives. Based on that research, Leading Age has formally recommended to its membership that we make the transition. All across the profession we are considering this recommendation carefully. Kendal, as a system, has decided to watch for a while to see how the concept is received and if it is embraced. We don’t want to be “early adopters” but we also don’t want to be too late to the party if this term builds momentum. It looks like that may be the case - two of the largest players in our sector have signed on - led by LCS, a developer/ manager of communities that operates over 100 CCRCs. And, two of the major for-profit operators have indicated that they are planning to make the shift. So - stay tuned - you will likely see us
using the new term in marketing, while officially remaining a “CCRC” - and over time, I’m betting we will make the transition. I’d be interested in your reaction. If you have a view on this term - positive or negative, please drop me a note or email. All across the Kendal system, we are asking our residents, staff, and leadership for feedback as we contemplate how to proceed.
Patricia Doyle
Overheard in the Bistro
This month we will take a little respite from Kendal pets, and add a column to an intermittent series I began last year, about human residents who, I believe, are not widely recognized for the great time and effort they put into activities that enhance the quality of all our lives here. I start with Leonore Meyer, who is chair of the Movie Committee. Leonore reminded me that she was the subject of a quite full mini-biography, written 3
by Sue Phillips, in the December 2009 issue of Kendal View, so these paragraphs will be confined to her film activities. As you all know, movies are shown at Kendal, usually in the Gathering Room, five nights a week, and on Sunday afternoons. The members of the committee who select each film and arrange for its showing include Annette Leyden, Gisa Indenbaum, and a new resident, Jerry Tanklow. But, as often happens with Kendal committees, most of the work is done by one or two members. In this case, these are Leonore, who selects most of the American films and Annette, who contributes titles of many of the art and foreign movies. Of course, requests from all residents, for specific films, are gladly received and almost always met. Another important committee member is Peggy Pennell, who has the specific role of keeping a history of all the movies shown, on a Microsoft Excel sheet, including release dates and cast members. Leonore’s qualifications for this job include attending, as a child, double features at her neighborhood movie theater in the Bronx every Saturday, and perhaps, like many of us, hiding under the seats between performances to be able to see each show twice. Soon after arriving at Kendal a couple of years after its opening, she inadvertently went to a Movie Committee meeting, and immediately after, hardly recognizing what was happening, the job of chair was hers! Another valuable qualification, for the job is that 4
Leonore’s son is a Hollywood writer and director, author of the well-known book, later made into a film, The 7% Solution. He is a member of the Writers Guild and the Directors Guild, and other motion picture organizations. He recommends some of the newer films and sends her films from his personal collection. Most of the movies, though, are obtained from Netflix. Selecting films to be shown is, to say the least, the most enjoyable part of the job of the Movie Committee chair. Then comes the surprisingly complex and sometimes very frustrating process of actually getting the films onto the screen. Every week the list of the films must be given to the Spotlight. Then every night the appropriate DVD must be taken to the Gathering Room and set up for viewing. Members of the Kendal night staff assist with the mechanics, but at times personal close supervision and assistance are needed. Minor delays, technical errors, and other types of mishaps are not uncommon. Occasionally major problems arise, such as total malfunction of equipment, which require shifting the viewing site to the Private Dining Room, or simply canceling a showing. By having to attend almost every showing, Leonore has added greatly to her knowledge of the history of cinema! The regular nightly viewing audience is, in truth, quite small: about a dozen, or so, residents. Almost all, it turns out, are women. They are a remarkably steady
group, although occasionally they have been known to walk out, en masse, of a really poor film. The audience swells when a popular film is shown. The work of maintaining this estimable Kendal perk is time consuming.
8 Another committee that adds immeasurably to the vigor and interest of living at Kendal is the Trips Committee. Its chair for the past six years has been Jan Myers, with whom I recently talked about the group. The eight other members are Eleanor Bromberg, Sheila Darnborough, Doris Eder, Muriel Hahn, Jane Hart, Grace Lowney, Jean MacIntosh, and Patricia Taylor. Trips of some sort are scheduled on Wednesdays, in one of the Kendal vans, thus limiting the number of participants to 14. Those on the third Wednesday of every month are to malls, the most frequent one being the Westchester in White Plains; these excursions are not Trips Committee sponsored. Other Wednesdays are devoted to going to sites of cultural and artistic interest, often museums, gardens, and historic houses, but also to some events like the Metropolitan Opera HD Live showings in White Plains. A recurring popular trip is “New York City Do Your Own Thing,� with the drop-off at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. On these excursions, residents may spend time anywhere in Manhattan as long as
they get back to the Met by departure time (on one occasion on a 90 degree summer day, the entire group went into the museum and stayed there until leaving). Generally trips are limited to sites not more than a one and a half hour drive from Kendal (in a van that goes at the fairly slow speeds required by speed limits), but on one occasion a group went as far as the Philadelphia Flower Show. There is no charge for any trip beyond the cost of admission tickets, plus tolls and parking charges, and tabs for lunches. Each trip is decided by the entire committee; of course, suggestions from all residents are always welcome. Once a trip is approved, one committee member volunteers to take on planning, arranging, and leading the trip. Among the many decisions a trip leader makes are whether a docent should lead the group, or not, in a museum; whether eating lunch together should be included; and, if so, where. The leader is also responsible for implementing cancellations, even if last minute (and considering our average ages, this is not an infrequent occurrence), and selecting and notifying replacements from the waiting list. I asked Jan for some possibly interesting stories of misadventures in the history of the Trips Committee, but she denied emphatically that there were any! Surprisingly, to me, there have been no instances of individuals getting lost or failing to show up for the return leg --- a tribute to the keen awareness and abilities of Kendal residents! A few people have gotten ill during a trip 5
and several have required transfers to nearby hospital emergency rooms. I was interested to learn that Patty Munson reviews the list of residents going on every trip, before its date, to confirm the ability of each resident to be part of the group and to advise the leader whether or not anyone needs an aide, or if any other special precautions should be taken. Jan is especially qualified to be in charge of this activity. Her career, for 35 years, was with small public relations agencies in New York whose clients were in the travel industry. Her specialty was arranging press trips for travel editors and travel writers, mainly to Europe, the Caribbean, and Ecuador. Even with all this past experience and the active participation of every committee member, successful leadership of this committee requires much time and effort. We are fortunate to have Jan’s devoted service for another uniquely wonderful perk of living at Kendal!
Norman J. Sissman
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MEMORIES
Reading Steve Kanfer’s captivating tribute, in the April Kendal View, to Maurice Sendak, the non-pareil illustrator and writer of children’s books, brought back a flood of long submerged memories, all of them very happy ones. More than a half century ago I worked in a bucolic county seat in rural southern Indiana as the investment office manager of the family of Irwin Miller, the controlling stockholders of the Cummins Engine Company, the local bank, and a large cornstarch refining company. Cummins was the largest independent manufacturer of diesel engines in the world and the main employer in Columbus, Indiana, neighboring Stony Lonesome, Bean Blossom, Gnaw Bone, and all the rest of Bartholomew County. The engine company and the family office retained a very experienced consultant from New York to advise them on foreign currencies and international investments. His name was Robert Neumann and he operated out of a cluttered and disorderly office at 82 Beaver Street in the lower Manhattan financial district. Robert came from an aristocratic Viennese Jewish family, and had been an officer in the Imperial Hussars in World War I. At the time of the Anschluss when Hitler took over Austria Robert was in Rome as a member of the Austrian Davis Cup team. He never returned to Vienna.
After some years in Paris and London he came to New York. We became close friends and Robert would stay with us when he came to Columbus. He preferred our modest chalet to the pleasures of staying at the then only hotel in town – a somewhat run down hostelry tucked into an alley on the main drag – Washington Street. In New York, Robert had a companion of some years, Elizabeth ‘Libby’ Shub. Libby was superbly talented, lovely, and had a multitude of interests– a true Renaissance woman. Libby was born in Poland and came to the United States with her father as a young child. Her father, Dov Charney, was the premier Yiddish literary language critic in the United States for several decades, and his brother was managing editor of The Jewish Daily Forward. (Of which by happenstance long after his time I was the pension fund manager.) Dov Charney had sponsored Isaac Bashevis Singer for immigration to the United States in the mid-1930s.
Robert and Libby had already been companions for a number of years when Bix and I met her in New York City. She was a children’s book editor, writer, and a translator of novels and short stories from the original Yiddish. At the time we knew Libby she was the editor of Green Willow Books, the children’s division of the publisher Harper Collins. Maurice Sendak illustrated many of Libby’s books. We had a large collection of them, which I would read to my daughter Katie, at bedtime while sitting on her bed. One that she particularly liked and made me read to her over and over was called Zlateh the Goat and Other Stories. The narrative was written by Isaac Bachevis Singer, translated from the Yiddish by Libby and entrancingly illustrated by Maurice Sendak. Katie also loved another of Libby’s books, Where the Wild Things Are. It was illustrated and also written by Sendak, Libby’s brother, Bill Charney, lived in Montclair, New Jersey, my hometown, with his wife, Shulamit, and two lovely 7
daughters. Bill’s gene pool must have differed a bit from the literary giants in his family. He was a microbiologist and the director of research for the Schering Plough Corporation, a large and important pharmaceutical company located in Bloomfield, Montclair’s next-door neighbor. Among other achievements, Bill was one of the discoverers and the chief developer of prednisone. The Charneys would have periodic gettogethers of family and friends at their home on Christopher Street in Montclair. We attended them for a number of years. We met many interesting people there including Isaac Bashevis Singer and his wife, also Maurice Sendak, and Belle Kaufman, Libby’s cousin and the granddaughter of Sholem Aleichem of Fiddler On the Roof fame. Belle also was the author of Up the Down Staircase, the wonderful and classic rendering of the travails of an inner city high school English teacher. Unhappily for us, Libby’s cousin David Bromberg, the famous country and folk music instrumentalist and singer, never made the scene there. Quel dommage. Alma, the wife of Isaac Bashevis Singer, was a real pistol. She was a longtime buyer and sales person at Saks Fifth Avenue. She told me shortly before Mr. Singer was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature, and in all seriousness, that she kept her job at Saks because it was dependable and steady income.
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She was worried that wealth acquired from writing books like her husband’s was likely to be ephemeral and couldn’t be counted on to support them in good times and bad. (Steve Kanfer, who knew the Singers well, said that “Isaac needed her income for years, including those when The New Yorker and Playboy were paying him top dollar.”) Mr. Singer spoke perfect vernacular English and actually translated some of his own works from Yiddish into English. He said he felt more comfortable writing in Yiddish and that the language was more suitable for his subject matter. For a considerable period Libby was his principal translator. Katie our daughter, worked for Libby as an interne at Green Willow Books while she was a college student. She has always said it was one of her most wonderful and exciting experiences. Libby had a magical touch in picking the right books to publish and then make them irresistible to her eager and very youthful clientele. Libby also had a nifty apartment on West End Avenue overlooking the Hudson River. Her apartment contained a large and lovely mobile designed and constructed by Alexander Calder just for her. Today the view is gone. A mercenary Donald Trump has built a hideous apartment complex just in front of her building, putting out the lovely
light and forever blocking the view of the river. Much as we miss Libby, I’m glad she hasn’t lived to see it.
Bill Smethurst
older, many of his relatives and close friends began passing away. He thought about his situation and said, “People are dying today that never died before.” He wasn’t brilliant but he wasn’t wrong. In signing up to come to Kendal almost a year and a half ago, I didn’t think about death and dying. My thoughts were mostly focused on having found a place where I could spend my later years and my wife would somehow be taken care of. I was excited about the change in my life and all the positive things that Kendal offered. I just did not think about the end of life and all that might entail. I did have our wills and estates brought up to date but that seemed to me only “legal stuff” which would have importance somewhere a long way off down the road.
DEATH, REMEMBRANCE & BRIDGET COOKE
When dealing with a difficult topic such as dying and death, perhaps, to start with a little levity might take the edge off something that can be terribly depressing. So, I’ll start with a story about an uncle of mine. As he grew
One evening shortly after entering Kendal, sitting in the Bistro for dinner, someone mentioned that a resident who I did not know had passed away. I was told that she had been sick for a long time so it was not unexpected. The dinner proceeded without further discussion about the deceased. I didn’t take particular notice but I expected that some sort of “official” announcement of the death would be forthcoming. When the next Spotlight edition appeared there was nothing in it about “the dear departed.” I thought to myself
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that perhaps that is the way things are at Kendal and that public displays of emotion are not part of the Kendal culture. I did think that there would be some sort of institutional mention or notice. There wasn’t. However, with all the construction going on and the mail boxes and cubbies down at the T-level I had almost no reason to walk along “Main Street.” I’m not even sure it was open. But one day after some of the construction subsided, I walked that way and noticed this little alcove with a shelf on which was a nicely lettered card with the name of a resident and the years of birth and death. Alongside it was a single yellow rose. I didn’t know the person but I thought the announcement was in particularly good and refined taste. However, I wondered, as Peggy Lee once sang, “Is That All There Is?” Who was she? What kind of a life did she live? I jokingly tell people that I pass by the alcove daily and if I don’t see my name I’m good for at least another day. I’m not yet ready to have my ticket punched for a trip to the Great Gathering Room in the Sky. In my little over a year of being a resident, two fellows I’ve come to know, Lynn Wildman and Nathan Saltzburg, have lost their wives. I expressed my condolences to both and in their faces it was easy to see the sorrow and loss they
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had gone through – and are still going through. So I got to know that there is genuine emotion at Kendal but just not tearful public, open communal-wide grieving. Recently Bridget Cooke passed away. We had both been engaged in the Great Decisions program and had somewhat more than just a nodding acquaintance. We talked a bit about the issues and she mentioned that she had studied German. I would have liked to ask her more about that and her visits to Germany. Her death was a first for me – the first Kendal person I really knew, though, frankly, I didn’t know her very well but enough to be stunned by her dying though she never seemed sick at all. Perhaps a week or 10 days before she died I passed her in the hall. I could always tell when she was approaching by the way she walked. I thought there might be a slight hip problem as she sort of rolled along in a distinctive way. We said hello. That was that and now I will see her no more. That has saddened me. I asked a few people who I thought knew her whether there would be a memorial meeting. Nobody seemed to know and I found out that it was usually up to the individual and, after death, the family as to whether there should be some sort of celebration of life. One person remarked that, perhaps, Bridget didn’t want anything like that and would
have preferred that it just be left to her family. I later found out that she, indeed, had wishes of her own and did not want anything elaborate other than an introduction and some music. For me, that is totally O.K., I was delighted to find out that there will be a gathering in her honor at Kendal sometime in midJune. (Ed. note: It will be on June 29th.) However, I was left with the feeling that there was more about her I’d like to know though there was a brief bio beside the yellow rose. I was reminded of my mother’s funeral. She had lived into her 90s, had been a widow for longer than she was married and returned to being a bookkeeper after my father’s death. One might say – not a remarkable life. However, at the memorial service many people, relatives and friends, had the chance to get up and say what “Grandma Frieda” meant to them. She had an amazing impact on many lives and it was wonderful for everybody in attendance to hear about it and walk away with more memories than they had walked in with. Some of our residents are talented and write memoirs. I’ve read Peter Davies’. Quite a life thus far! Of course, the bio’s Sybille Colby does of new residents help a lot. There is a collection organized by Bert Pepper of them (and some brief autobiographies) in the Library in a loose-leaf book entitled “Getting to Know You.” There is not one for every resident but enough so if one looks them
over you get to know more about many of the people you dine with in the Bistro. Most people don’t write memoirs or autobiographies and the bio’s only touch on a few important facets of a person’s life. Our residents come and go and we normally don’t really know all that much about them. Remembrance, to my way of thinking, is vitally important. The memories that we leave behind in the hearts and minds of family, friends, and even those we only briefly meet, become part of their total being. In many instances it helps guide the way they live out their lives. Wouldn’t we be enriched by knowing a little more about our fellow residents? Many of the Kendalites I’ve spoken to have lived fascinating lives. It would be wonderful to know them in greater depth while they’re still with us or even after they’ve passed away. The great wealth that each of us has is our experiences. We should think more seriously about sharing them with others.
Eugene Dubow
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Harriet Crawford and the Church Bazaar
My grandmother is wrapped in bandages. Gauze partially obscures her fine features and white hair. It winds around her black dress with the neat, white pattern, hides her sturdy shoes. Despite the discomfort, her eyes gleam with delight. I am ten years old, and I have wrapped her up. It seems like a good thing for a Girl Scout to do, and my serene, humorous grandmother agrees. When my mother appears and orders me to release her, it takes time to unwind the gauze and start her circulation again. Another time I sit her down, 85 years old, and insist she learn to type. Harriet Webb Crawford came to live with my family before I was born; she died in her room at 89, when I was 14. We spent a lot of time together—she in her velvet Victorian chair while I, a chubby girl with big glasses, delivered lectures and information. In return she told me stories of life backin Galena, Illinois. I addressed her enormous correspondence and she sewed my hems. My grandmother was important to me, wonderful; yet I began to feel she was too self-effacing— always the one who scrubbed the scorched pans. I was puzzled at the difference between her and my mother, a forceful social worker and perpetual chairman full of opinions. Many years after her death I talk about her with my mother. Photos as a young woman show a slim Harriet with luminous eyes, wearing Baroque hats and flouncy white dresses. A clipping (Demorest’s Family Magazine, 1893) mentions Miss Webb’s “soundness of heart, sweetness of disposition, and polish of manner.” Harriet Webb was born in Minnesota in 1863. Her father died young and her widowed mother took Harriet and her two sisters back to the family house in Galena. My grandmother lived in Galena until her husband, Jack Crawford, died in 1936, never moving from the house her mother and grandmother had lived in with their families. It was modest but inviting, with a wide porch overlooking the street and the river beyond, neighbors stopping by for lemonade and cake, trains whistling at the depot. When guests came to dinner, there would be a “Jack Horner Pie” centerpiece—a crepe-paper pie with a streamer at each place leading to some little gift within the pie. Once a well-to-do relative followed her streamer into the next room and found 12
it attached to an antique chair that the relative had once admired. (I think, What a thing to give away!) My mother as a teenager laughed at her mother’s activities (Little Helpers Club, needlework for the Great War… ) but agreed to trudge up the hill weekly to Miss Minnie’s house, carrying enough Sunday dinner to last several days. Miss Minnie had announced, after her fiancé went off with her sister, that she would never again step out of doors. So for decades she lived alone, watching with binoculars the townspeople below and receiving the donations of charitable souls like Mrs. Crawford. As my mother tells more stories, I notice that my grandmother Hattie is sounding stronger and more confident. I am amused but not astonished to hear of all the jellies and plum puddings sold and shipped to raise money for the church: that was what ladies did back then. But one item shows imagination and executive ability. A beloved aunt was having a 90th birthday. Hattie bought a calendar and sent one page to 365 people, with a letter requesting a birthday message on that page. She wrote mainly friends and relatives, but also the President, governor, senators, dozens of other public figures. While no one today knows who responded, we do know that my grandmother put together her 365 pages and presented them to her aunt on the festive day. With no copiers? Quite an organizer. Yes, says my mother; she was always planning campaigns to help someone. She forced money out of unlikely people. She produced an elaborate cookbook for the church and bullied the Knox Gelatine Company into subsidizing expenses. One time a poor family was forced to leave town under a cloud. Mrs. Crawford saw them off at the station. Learning that the mother was distressed at having to depart with her baby unbaptized, and knowing that in the Episcopal Church any member could conduct a baptism in an emergency, she prepared for an impromptu ceremony. A group of cynical loiterers were peering at the proceedings. So, as a whistle announced the approaching train, my grandmother swept the mother and baby into the ladies’ room, baptized the child, then sent them off with a basket of lunch. Her methods were not pugnacious, but they were not inconspicuous, either. One old Galena family had fizzled out, leaving only Eliza, a poor, peculiar spinster. (When a farmer’s wife asked Eliza to Christmas dinner, she replied: “Due to the aristocracy from which I am descended I cannot possibly accept your invitation.”) Eliza made a pittance as town librarian, but eventually became intolerable—in fact, she would not lend out books any more. When the library board met to vote on firing her, Hattie Crawford stumbled out of a sickbed to vote against the move. “I was appalled,” says
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my mother, who was a young woman at that time, “and demanded to know why she would vote to keep such an incompetent person. She replied, Of course Eliza should be fired—but at least this way she could say it was not unanimous.” I visited Galena once, with my mother, to celebrate her 75th birthday. There are chic boutiques on Main Street but Grace Church on the hill shelters under the ivy that was there when my mother was a child. The old Crawford house is painted white now, not yellow, but it looks the same. Later, my mother gave me the silver coffee urn her mother used to bring for the church bazaar. It’s dull, long unpolished, but fancy grapes and ribbons are still visible on the surface. “Do you remember about Netta Darcy?” she asks. One of Galena’s grandest grande dames was discovered to be a kleptomaniac. She was lifting bric-a-brac from her friends’ mantelpieces. Now Mrs. Darcy for years had been involved in the most important social event—the annual bazaar at Grace Church. She had always ruled the apron table, selling elegant aprons that she and her friends made from New York patterns. That year the committee decided Mrs. Darcy could not be trusted to handle money. They took away her apron table. The bazaar consisted of a dozen tables piled with handwork and food, clustered around the glorious tea table. Harriet was in charge of the tea table, brought flowers and candy and little cakes, and added her own family silver and china. Tea was at one end of the long table, coffee at the other. Each year my grandmother asked two local ladies to pour, an enormous honor. My mother explains: “Of course pouring the coffee is much the greater honor.” The identity of the pourers was secret until they appeared on the festive day. This year the townspeople’s excitement over Mrs. Darcy’s disgrace was equalled only by their curiosity about the tea-table ladies. When the bazaar opened, there at the table—as you may have guessed—was Netta Darcy in a great hat, nonchalantly pouring coffee from my silver urn. In that gesture Harriet salvaged some self-esteem for Mrs. Darcy and showed the others what she thought of their righteousness. I still have her church cookbook, full of no-nonsense recipes like “Poor Man’s Pudding” and “Leftover Fish.” The Crawfords had little money: for years Jack was sick and unable to work so Harriet had a limited budget—yet she made things special with a flourish. One recipe, signed H.W.C., is “Easter Ice Cream Meringues.” You make standard meringue shells, then “fill shell with ice cream and put another shell on top. Tie together with ribbon.” Harriet Webb Crawford liked to tie people together, sometimes with useful twine, sometimes with cheerful ribbons.
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A picture of my grandmother stands on my bookcase. Her kind eyes promise to share your unhappiness and your delight. Some day I should polish her old coffee urn.
Deborah O’Keefe from McCall’s Magazine, 1981
Let's face it - English is a crazy language.
There is no egg in eggplant, nor ham in hamburger; neither apple nor pine in pineapple. English muffins weren't invented in England or French fries in France. Sweetmeats are candies while sweetbreads, which aren't sweet, are animal organs. We take English for granted. But if we explore its paradoxes, we find that quicksand can work slowly, boxing rings are square and a guinea pig is neither from Guinea nor is it a pig. And why is it that writers write but fingers don't fing, grocers don't groce and hammers don't ham? If the plural of tooth is teeth, why isn't the plural of booth, beeth? One goose, 2 geese. So
one moose, 2 meese? One index, 2 indices? Doesn't it seem crazy that you can make amends but not one amend? If you have a bunch of odds and ends and get rid of all but one of them, what do you call it? If teachers taught, why didn't preachers praught? If a vegetarian eats vegetables, what does a humanitarian eat? Sometimes I think all the English speakers should be committed to an asylum for the verbally insane. In what language do people recite at a play and play at a recital? Ship by truck and send cargo by ship? Have noses that run and feet that smell? How can a slim chance and a fat chance be the same, while a wise man and a wise guy are opposites? You have to marvel at the unique lunacy of a language in which your house can burn up as it burns down, in which you fill in a form by filling it out, and in which an alarm goes off by going on. English was invented by people, not computers, and it reflects the creativity of the human race, which, of course, is not a race at all. That is why, when the stars are out, they are visible, but when the lights are out, they are invisible. PS. - Why doesn't 'Buick' rhyme with 'quick'? Author unknown 15
Kendal View Staff Co-editors: Joan Oltman, Norman J. Sissman Editorial Committee: Gloria Cooper, Sue Phillips Photography Editors: Caroline Persell, Horst Berger Advertising and Billing: Norman J. Sissman, Hubie Wilke, Jim Wood
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The Editorial Forces Team You know you have book in you. Let us help you tell your story. Our editorial group – an author and an editor – has a combined forty years’ experience working with prestigious publishers and authors. Whether you need a manuscript critique for an overall assessment of your book-to-be, a developmental edit to organize your text, or a line edit to perfect your manuscript, we are here for you. We also offer ghost writing services.
For more information please contact KJ Fallon: editorialforces@gmail.com https://www.publishersmarketplace.com/members/editorseditor/
Dentistry, as with other health services, is rapidly changing. Technology is constantly improving, allowing us to deliver quality care in less time and with less stress. Most importantly though, dentistry is still an art as well as a science. As a health service, the patient care is provided not only by the doctor, but by the entire office staff. Dentistry as a health service means properly placed restorations and courteously answered phones. Rapidly changing technology will not change this philosophy of service.
Peter J. Zegarelli, DDS - General Dentistry 87 North Broadway • Tarrytown, NY 10591 • 914-631-1800 Website: www.drzegarelli.com • Email: info@drzegarelli.com The Zegarelli dental office has been located in Tarrytown since 1982. We have been serving KoH residents since the Kendal opening day in 2005.
BOSTICK, MURPHY & COMPANY CERTIFIED PUBLIC ACCOUNTANTS P.C. Individual, Business, Trust and Estate Tax consulting, planning and return preparation We will meet at your home, office or at our location in Mount Kisco William G. Bostick, CPA, CVA Patricia A. Murphy, CPA, CVA, CFP, CHFC, PFS, CGMA 113 SMITH AVE. MT. KISCO, NY 10549 (914) 666-6336 (914) 666-0396 fax pmurphycpa@aol.com
We can assist you with your hearing loss, hearing aids, nasal and throat problems, and allergies. Michael Bergstein, MD, FACS
Salvatore Taliercio, MD
Board Certified in Otolaryngology, Balloon Sinus surgery and Sleep apnea
Jill Zeitlin, MD
Board Certified in Otolaryngology, Specializes in Hearing Services
Fellowship Trained Laryngologist, Voice and Swallowing Disorders
John County, MD, FAAAAI
Board Certified in Allergy and Immunology
Jessica Comparetto, MA, CCC-A licensed audiologist
358 North Broadway, Suite 203 • Sleepy Hollow, NY 10591 Tel: 914-631-3053 • Fax: 914-631-2807
Ear, Nose, Throat and Allergy care in YOUR neighborhood!
Call us today. See us today!
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Pharmacy
One-Stop Pharmacy Shopping Prescriptions Medical Equipment l Sundries Our friendly, professiomal staff take the time to get to know each customer. We do more than fill prescriptions. We provide the best in over-the-counter and post-surgical supplies. So stop by, say hello, and let us know how we can help you. Open Monday - Friday
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Keeping the Kendal community mobile with one-stop auto repair services COMPLETE SYSTEMS ANALYSIS - ALL CARS BRAKES TIRES COOLANT HEAT/AC EXHAUST ALIGNMENTS STEERING SUSPENSION & MORE! Call today for an appointment:
Mickey Keegan, Owner
mickey@mickeys-automotive.com As always, free pick up and delivery for all Kendal residents
P H E L P S Donald R. Reed Speech & Hearing Center
Comprehensive care close to home at Phelps Memorial Hospital Center
914-366-3010
Institute for Voice and Swallowing Disorders Craig H. Zalvan, MD Laryngologist
914-366-3636 777 North Broadway Suite 303 Sleepy Hollow, NY
Hearing Testing Hearing Aid Dispensing Comprehensive Care of Voice and Swallowing Evaluation and Treatment of Speech and Language Disorders Van Tassel
Cleaners
Your Great Expectations... Can Be Filled.
GRAPE EXPECTATIONS
Wine and Liquor Merchant
“Better Cleaners For Those Who Care”
Family Owned And Operated Since 1929 We serve over 70 Kendal customers, so you have probably seen our white and red lettered delivery truck making the rounds to all four residential buildings. Dependable delivery and pickup of laundry, dry cleaning, clothing repairs and adjustments.
Turn Around Service 631-7787
A few doors from C Town. Free parking in the back away from traffic. Knowledgeable and friendly staff will answer questions and help you select from the largest and most unique display in the Rivertowns. ❖ Competitive pricing and discounts. ❖ I look forward to having you join our many Kendal customers. John Sarofeen, Proprietor
Tel. 914-332-0294
92 N. Broadway, Tarrytown, NY
Westchester’s Finest Clockmaker since 1951
Harnik Bros. J E W E L E R S
Enrico Hair Care, Inc. Enrico Hair Care, Inc. Mondays EnricoMondays cuts and styles Tatianacuts consults on color Enrico and styles and TatianaTuesdays consults -on color Wednesdays Ida does pedicures by appointment Hairstyling by Kim Wednesdays Wednesdays through Fridays Hairstyling by Kim Maria does manicures Wednesdays Fridays Thursdaythrough and Fridays - Maria does manicures Hairstyling by Toni Fridays Thursday and Fridays Christina doesHairstyling pedicures, manicures and hair. by Toni
Call Callfor forappointments appointments 523-6382 922-1057 523-6382 or or 922-1057
Specializing in Watch Repair • Clock Repair Jewelry Repair & Remodeling Battery and Band Replacements Tall Case • Ships • Atmos • Carriages
Museum Quality Restoration Since 1951
All Work Done On Premise Free Estimates Pick Up & Delivery
914.631.3224
Harnik Bros. Jewelers 6 North Broadway, Tarrytown, NY 10591
WINNER: WINNER:
Top Top 100 100 Chinese Chinese Restaurants Restaurants in in the the USA USA 2007 2007 We’ve We’ve been been serving serving the the community community since since 1990. 1990. Special thanks to our many patrons Special thanks to our many patrons for for years years of of support. support. We’ll We’ll continue continue to to serve serve the the best best quality quality & & most most nutritious food with less oil, less salt & less nutritious food with less oil, less salt & less starch starch for for the the years years to to come. come. “Your “Your health, health, Our Our Mission.” Mission.” 17 17 Main Main Street Street Tarrytown, Tarrytown, New New York York 10591 10591 (Located (Located on on the the corner corner opposite opposite the Music the Music Hall) Hall)
Monday Monday -- Saturday: Saturday: 11am 11am -- 11pm 11pm Sunday: Noon Sunday: Noon - 11pm 11pm
Tel: Tel: 914.332.1625 914.332.1625 // 1640 1640 Fax: Fax: 914.332.1644 914.332.1644
FREE FREE DELIVERY DELIVERY
Tarrytown Floral Design For For the the past past 8 8 years years Kendal Kendal Residents Residents have have chosen us to have their fresh chosen us to have their fresh flower flower arrangements arrangements delivered delivered to to friends friends near near and and far. far. Orchids, Orchids, tropical tropical plants, plants, blooming blooming plants, plants, and and kosher baskets, along with some surprises kosher baskets, along with some surprises from from our our new new expanded expanded space space next next time time you you call. call. Each Each order order is is hand hand delivered delivered throughout throughout Westchester or by FTD Westchester or by FTD all all over over the the USA. USA. Do Do come come in in and and see see our flowers for our flowers for yourself. yourself. Open Open 7 7 Days Days a a Week Week •• Call, Call, Click Click or or Come Come In In 7 7 South South Broadway Broadway in in Tarrytown Tarrytown 909-6393 909-6393 tarrytownfloraldesigns.com tarrytownfloraldesigns.com
Where Better Hearing 10% OFF Means Better Living Why Why choose choose an an AudigyCertified™ AudigyCertified™ professional? professional? BBoard-certified oard-certified doctors doctors of of audiology audiology C Comprehensive omprehensive hearing hearing evaluations evaluations Tinnitus Tinnitus treatment treatment Hearing Hearing aid aid orientation orientation
M Multiple ultiple manufacturers— manufacturers— because because one one brand brand does does not fit all not fit all 75-day 75-day evaluation evaluation period period 3-year extended 3-year extended warranty warranty 3 3 years years of of batteries batteries
the the purchase purchase of of new new hearing aid(s) for hearing aid(s) for Kendal Kendal on on Hudson Hudson residents* residents* * Not to be combined with * Not to be combined with other offers. other offers.
914.290.4849 Julie Julie B. B. O’Shea, O’Shea, Au.D., Au.D., Owner, Owner, Doctor Doctor of of Audiology Audiology Patricia Patricia A. A. Martucci, Martucci, Au.D., Au.D., Doctor Doctor of of Audiology Audiology Donna Donna T.T. Ronan, Ronan, Au.D., Au.D., Doctor Doctor of of Audiology Audiology Debra Debra Skorney, Skorney, Au.D., Au.D., Owner, Owner, Doctor Doctor of of Audiology Audiology Jennifer Ratner, Au.D., Doctor of Audiology Jennifer Ratner, Au.D., Doctor of Audiology Lidis Lidis Pacheco, Pacheco, HIS HIS
Visit Visit us us online online at at Hearing-Care.org Hearing-Care.org
785 785 Mamaroneck Mamaroneck Ave Ave •• White White Plains, Plains, NY NY 10605 10605 Free Free Parking, Parking, Handicap Handicap Accessible Accessible
Angels on Call is pleased to announce that we have opened a satellite office located right here at Kendal on Hudson in the main building on Level C
Angels on Call has been a favorite of Kendal
Call 845-628-2255 today to discover why residents for over 10 years
Offering multiple services to augment the lives of you and your loved ones RN/LPN Services In-Home Assessments by qualified RNs Medication Pours HHA/Companion Services Attentive and experienced Home Health Aides carefully supervised and monitored by an RN Assistance with Personal Hygiene and Grooming Nutritious Meal Planning and Preparation Medication Reminders Companionship Respite Care Exercise Additional Services Escorts to Doctor Appointment/Shopping/Errands Conscientious Pet Care and Plant Care General Tidying and Trash Removal* Laundry and Linen Changes
Angels on Call, a passion for providing quality homecare to extend the independence of all Kendal residents
Call 845-628-2255 or email us at info@aochc.com today to experience the best that home health care has to offer
* Angels on Call is not a home cleaning service. However, if such services are required, we would be delighted to make an appropriate referral