Memorials

 

Memorial Service
September 21, 2002
Beaver Country Day School
Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts

Remembrance by Jan Polatschek

I met Alice Dawn in the spring of the year 1966.  We were married in October.  

Alice and I parted in 1981 yet I do believe that recently, Alice and I were good friends.

I am grateful that I have the opportunity to tell you about some of my recollections.

Alice was then, thirty-six years ago, as she was until last month, energetic, enthusiastic, articulate, and always smiling.  She was also determined, thorough, challenging, relentless and please forgive me, stubborn.

Several years ago as I was preparing to celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of my Bar Mitzvah, I browsed through my Bar Mitzvah photograph album. There is one shot that is particularly dramatic. I am walking between my father and my mother; they are holding my hands, and we are striding triumphantly into the catering hall. My sister Paula; my grandparents, Rosa and Herman Polacek, and Harry Lifson; Aunt Sue and Uncle Harry Taxier, Aunt Beatrice Lifson, Aunt Ida Lifson, Aunt Ida Kiewe; cousins and friends are all assembled and waiting for the Bar Mitzvah bocher to arrive.

Bangkok, Thailand
Sunday Morning
March 15, 2009

Dear Friends,

I have some very sad news to report.

After several battles, my friend Jay Gilsen passed away in New York on Friday, March 13. Jay is one of my oldest and dearest friends.

Jay was my Anderson Avenue, Highbridge, Bronx, New York neighborhood buddy and my classmate from Kindergarten through Taft High School. As regular "cut -ups," we often met at "the Principal's bench" at PS 73.

Bangkok, Thailand
May 11. 2009

Dearest Family and Friends,

This month and the next was always a difficult time of the year for me and my late parents.

My younger sister Paula Carol was born on May 11, 1944. She passed away on June 5, 1972.

                                Ruth Polatschek  1912 - 1999