Remembering ‘Aunt Nan’

Nanette Jimenez, of Lynbrook, was all about fun, helping others

By BEN FIEBERt bfiebert@liherald.com

Her childlike enthusiasm and willingness to help others is what Joe Delia remembers most of his late Aunt Nanette Jimenez.

According to Delia, her high energy and positivity remained right up until she died Jan. 25 of ovarian cancer.

Jimenez’s mother passed down a playful personality to her, which Delia called a “mischievous spirit.” asked how it feels to be turning 100, she said, “It’s good to be here.”

Born on St. Patrick’s Day in 1958, Jimenez was given the middle name St. Pat.

She said she is “very happy to be able to reach 100 and enjoy every minute.” She has a large family and spends her time interacting with them. “I have four children and 19 grandchildren,” Krull said. “I love to pray and say my rosary in my free time.”

Krull’s religious roots began to grow in 1955 and she says her favorite memory is “the day I became a Catholic at 32 years old.” Along with praying, Krull loves to exercise and sing. She is also affiliated with the Saint Francis of Assisi, the Mercy League, and Franciscan of the Third Order.

Krull was born in Michigan in 1923 and attended high school in Hart, MI. “One of her favorite memories from those high school years was her prom,” Chibnall said. “She remembers

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JoE DElIA events. Delia has vivid memories of Jimenez’s lively personality. One event that stands out was a New Year’s Eve karaoke party. “That’s where Nan really shined,” Delia said. “I have great memories of her performances at those New Year’s Eve parties.”

Delia’s home on Earle Avenue is where her childlike enthusiasm shone through. “My home in Lynbrook has a huge backyard, so we’ve had countless parties here,” Delia said. “And we would get those big inflatable slip-and-slides and Nan would be right next to a kid going down the slide.”

“Her mischievous spirit was right there from the beginning,” Delia said. Jimenez, Delia, and the rest of the family grew up in Rosedale, Queens, and later moved to Lynbrook.

Nanette Jimenez’s nephew

Donna Delia, Nanette’s sister and Joe Delia’s mother, recalls her siblings as “four little girls from Rosedale.”

“Aunt Nan moved with my uncle Julio on Walnut Street about five or six years after I moved to Lynbrook,” Delia said. Memories were created on that street through many family

“As little girls we would set up our living room as a stage,” Donna Delia said. “We would take turns singing and dancing on our marble coffee table with a hairbrush as our microphone. Guess who was the star of the Continued on page 20

Surge in catalytic converter alarms officials

A surge in the theft of catalytic converters on Long Island has officials worried organized crime might be targeting Long Island driveways.

Senator Chuck Schumer announced startling numbers at a Jan. 30 event in Mineola with local officials. Schumer said catalytic converter theft has risen 385.6 percent since 2021 in Nassau County.

“This is out of control,” Schumer said. “Dangerous at the worst and maddening at the least.”

Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman joined with Schumer in calling for federal resources to help local law enforcement.

Schumer specifically called on the Department of Justice to create a specialized team to investigate ties to organized crime and the converter thefts.

A catalytic converter, part of a vehicle’s exhaust system, contains precious metals such as rhodium, palladium, and platinum. The value of these precious metals is extremely high—as of March 2022, rhodium is valued at $20,000 per ounce; palladium at $2,938 per ounce; and platinum at $1,128 per ounce, as reported by the National Insurance Crime Bureau.

Theft of catalytic converters is costly to auto dealers, as well as the driving public. It can cost a dealer $2,000 to $3,000 to replace a stolen converter in order to fix damage to a vehicle’s undercarriage, fuel

Catalytic

line, and electric lines in the process of a theft. In December, Blakeman announced the culmination of “Operation CatTrack”, a yearlong investigation with Nassau County police, U.S. Homeland Security, Nassau District Attorney, and the U.S. Postal Inspection Service. That investigation netted more than $4 million in cash, $3.2 million in bank accounts, and thousands of catalytic converters.

“It is becoming clear that the potential for organized crime or a theft ring is what is behind all of this,” Schumer said, “and we have to get to the bottom of who it is and where the converter cash is going.”

–Mark Nolan

What’s neWs in and out of the classroom