Sunday, May 24, 2009
Ruth - You were there!
For just a split moment - you were there! You 'woke up' and opened your eyes big and wide - like you always did in excited surprise. And i woke up feeling good!
Sunday, May 10, 2009
Thursday, May 7, 2009
We Buried Dear Sanford on May 7th - This is the eulogy as read by Rabbi Dean Kertesz.
Sanford Plainfield Eulogy – Thursday, May 07, 2009
Sometimes something simple, a moment, an event, or a choice, provides us with a way of looking at someone’s life. Sanford’s last name, Plainfield, and how he got that name does just that. The family name, Plainfield, isn’t a very old name. Sanford’s grandfather, who everyone referred to as “Old Man Plainfield”, immigrated to the United States from the Ukraine with four sons in the late 19th Century. His name was Yaroshevsky. His oldest son Mark was a medical student and had a lot of problems because of that last name. No one could pronounce it. People teased him about it and one of his professors told him, if he wanted to practice medicine in New England he needed to find a more “American” sounding name. He was so fed up he decided to change it and said, “The first streetcar I ride home will be my new last name.” He rode home on the Plainfield Streetcar. His father, Old Man Plainfield, also changed his name. One brother shortened his name to Yarris, another changed it to Kolitz and one kept the original Yaroshevsky. After the name change, Old Man Plainfield, had a fifth son, Samuel, who was Sanford’s dad. As far as the family knows, they are the only people in the country with that name. I begin with this story because, as I spoke to Mark and Kim about their father, what became clear is that Sanford, in many ways, constructed his life as he wished to live it – much as his uncle and grandfather constructed a new identity as Americans with their new last name.
Sanford Plainfield was born in 1922 in Providence, Rhode Island, the oldest son of Samuel Plainfield and Esther Cohen. Sanford had one brother, Robert, eight years his junior. Family life was not easy or happy. Esther worked as a grocery clerk and. Samuel traded in wholesale jewelry. Neither one had much education. From a very young age Sanford’s father was never around for him. He, his brother, and his mother moved frequently – 25 times by one count, before Sanford graduated high school. But he had great memories of good times with his friends: ice skating adventures and sailing. One of his friends built a boat in his basement only to discover that it was too big to get out. So they took it apart, then reassembled it outside and took it down to the water for its maiden voyage where it promptly sank. Nonetheless this was a clue to Sanford’s lifelong love of the sea and sailing. Every summer Sanford would go to Kansas City to work for his maternal uncle, Max Coe to earn money for college. In fact Sanford began working very early on his life. He was compelled to learn self reliance and because of this grew to be a man that every one else relied upon. Despite his difficult family life, he supported his mother and father until their deaths.
He went to Hope High School in Providence and graduated in 1941. School was really important to Sanford and he excelled. Edna McDonald stands out among his teachers. She was his guidance counselor and taught English literature. She was a real mentor to him and Sanford stayed close to her until she died. I don’t know if she sparked his love of literature or nurtured it but Sanford was a voracious reader his entire life. Mark and Kim remember Sanford reading Edgar Rice Burroughs, Rudyard Kipling, Jules Verne and Mark Twain to them at night.
Sanford’s favorite uncle was Mark, who became the first Jew to be licensed as a physician in Rhode Island. He was a role model for Sanford. Sanford’s oldest son, Mark, is named after Uncle Mark and Mark Twain. Kim was named after Rudyard Kipling’s Kim the Jungle Boy from The Jungle Book.
It may be that Sanford’s tough early years inspired him to be a great father and a loving husband. He was determined to heal what was broken in his past.
Sanford wanted to be an artist. He earned acceptance and scholarships to the Rhode Island School of Design and the Pratt Institute in New York. Kim says that the summer after his graduation Sanford ran across a friend who he had known in high school, who he thought was a great artist, and he told Sanford he was having a hard time making it. Mark says that he may be confusing his dad’s decision with Summerset Maugham’s novel, “Of Human Bondage.” In that story the main character has the courage to ask his teacher whether he is truly talented enough to make it as an artist. The teacher tells the student, “you’re good but you’ll never be great”. In the story the student struggles on to find his true vocation as a doctor. It may have been a combination of the two, but we know Sanford chose to become a dentist and built a remarkable career. He continued to paint and sketch his entire life. He loved art – to make it and to study it, to find opportunities to see it, to integrate into his teaching and to share it with his family.
But first, the Second World War intervened. Sanford enlisted in the Army in October 1942. He tested high and qualified for Officer Candidates School .The Army sent him to Santa Rosa Junior College. That is where he met his beloved Ruth, where they courted, and became engaged. That marriage would last until Ruth’s death just two months ago. They had a passionate and loving marriage. They wrote love letters to each other every day while they were apart during the three years of their engagement. Here is a short passage from Ruth to Sanford on his graduation from dental school that gives you taste of that love, “My love for you carries every faith in your ability to succeed, to heal, to be kind, to understand, to see and hear even when others cannot – every faith that you as a man will be quite singular in your life because you see what is really there…”
Mark described his father as a complete romantic. Kim says that at Santa Rosa Junior College Sanford wore cavalry pants, riding boots, a leather jacket, a white scarf, and sunglasses. He came to his romanticism through his love of literature, his passion for nobility and service, and his urgent need to transcend the world out of which he had come. His favorite musical was “Man of La Mancha.” It spoke to his commitment to being a gentleman, to know that you may be pursuing an illusion but, none the less, you will go after it with great dignity. And Sanford was a great gentleman. He fenced, he rode, he sailed, and he treated everyone he met with gentility and respect.
Sanford originally wanted to be a doctor but a counselor suggested that there were lots of openings for dentists and dentistry was a way to combine his artistic ability with his interest in medicine. The Army and the GI Bill helped him through dental school and he became an oral surgeon. He enlisted in the Air Force during the Korean War and served at Travis AFB as an oral surgeon. Casualties were flown directly to Travis from Korea. Sanford rebuilt the faces of wounded soldiers. It was a pretty tough introduction to his field. His experiences there turned him into a life long opponent of war.
Sanford was self-disciplined. He was fiercely committed to hard work and to doing things well. Hard work was a way out for him; a way to build his life. Here is one example. His college anatomy course was extremely difficult for him. He thought he was the dumbest student in the class, so he never spoke up fearing he would embarrass himself. He wrestled with his doubts alone and in private. At the end of the semester he had the top marks in the class. Far from being the dumbest student, he had the humility to become the best.
He was an excellent oral surgeon, at the top of his field. His son Kim had a keen interest in his dad’s work and Sanford did a lot of dental work on Kim. Kim has seen a lot of dentist since then – and none of them came close to matching Sanford’s skill or technique. He was also an innovator in his field. He developed a technique called tooth transplantation. On a trip to Northern California he met a lumberman in bar who showed him a tooth in his mouth that had been knocked out. The man had washed it off and put it back in and the tooth took root. Sanford took the idea, developed it, and applied it successfully to molars. Once, he went to Paris to give a lecture to a dental convention and a Seattle dentist asked him if he knew this crazy Bay Area dentist who developed tooth transplantation. With characteristic humility, Sanford said no, he hadn’t heard of him. He was also one of the early pioneers of implantology: implanting a permanent artificial root for a prosthetic tooth.
Sanford wasn’t just competent, he was compassionate. Kim remembers when he was four years old and Mark was doing summersaults off the arm of the coach. Kim thought he’d try and he fell and hit his head on the side of the table. He had a big gash – lots of blood. He remembers his dad taking care of him. Taking him to the hospital and staying with him in the operating room during the surgery. Kim felt great comfort in that moment – not just in Sanford’s presence and love for him, but he knew that Sanford knew what he was doing, and would take care of him and that gave Kim confidence. If you visited his dental practice you would have seen huge photo montages of his patients all over the walls. It was Sanford’s way of saying, “your treatment here will involve pain, but you are safe.”
He built a successful practice and then began teaching two days a week at UCSF. He was both a great dentist and a great teacher. He taught in the School of Prosthodontics. Because of the way he approached dentistry he became concerned that UCSF was turning out technicians, rather than doctors who cared about the whole patient. So, innovator once again, he created the School of Dental Psychology. Sanford went back to SF State and earned an MA in psychology. He then developed a curriculum in dental psychology and wrote the textbook for the program, “Totality in Treatment,” in 1965 which was published by UCSF. The program became a standard part of the dental school curriculum. He also founded a free dental clinic, staffed by students, to serve those who couldn’t afford dental treatment – the destitute, people on skid row. He wanted a place where his students could use their skills in service to others and where they could learn dentistry on real people, with tough cases, in the real world.
.He was a strong liberal committed to what he felt was right and what was just. When Kennedy ran for the Democratic nomination Sanford voted for Adlai Stevenson. He was a pioneer organizer of Negro History Week in the Berkeley schools. Maybe it was because he came from Rhode Island, the state of Roger Williams, who was important to Sanford, and his experience seeing the impact of Nazism. Kim says that Sanford never tried to be fair. He just was. Whatever he did was just and right. Mark says that Sanford and Ruth were both dedicated to public service, and they supported and fed off each other.
Sanford loved the sea and anything aquatic: the ocean, and the wind. He loved sailing and was always drawing waves and boats. He was deeply moved at being propelled by the power of the wind and the forces of the sea. He owned a series of sail boats and sailed on the Bay every week, as often as he could. He taught Kim how to sail. He was fascinated by the natural world and loved animals.
During the last part of Sanford’s life he learned to let go. He retired in 1994 because he could no longer keep up with the physical demands of dentistry. It was his fondest hope that he would sell his practice that he had nurtured and loved, to someone he could trust to sustain it and be true its spirit. But the dentist who bought it ran it into the ground. Soon after he left dentistry he retired from teaching at the University. The dental psychology program was dropped. Colleagues died off. When he was no longer physically capable of sailing, he had to give up his sail boat. But he bore each loss and separation stoically and with dignity. He volunteered as a docent at the California Academy of Sciences. He led school kids on tours of the museum. So he continued to teach and stay in contact with nature.
Sanford had physical problems for many years. They began with a bad hip replacement that caused him chronic pain and loss of balance. He suffered a mini-stroke and lost part of his vision. He thought he might be going blind and wondered how he could do art if he couldn’t see? In his dignified and quiet way he decided that if he could feel then he could sculpt. Later, he suffered from dementia. Near the end of his life his leg was amputated. But when asked how he was, Sanford always answered that he was fine. He never answered any other way. He was always just fine. Coming from a hard background, Sanford constructed a full and rich life founded on love, compassion, hard work and loyalty. At the end of his life, facing physical and emotional challenges, Sanford found ways to adapt, to see what he had, and what he was capable of doing, rather than complain or dwell on what he had lost and could no longer do. He was a brave man. Always the romantic, he was a compassionate gentleman. Sanford dignified everyone around him until the end of his life.
Sometimes something simple, a moment, an event, or a choice, provides us with a way of looking at someone’s life. Sanford’s last name, Plainfield, and how he got that name does just that. The family name, Plainfield, isn’t a very old name. Sanford’s grandfather, who everyone referred to as “Old Man Plainfield”, immigrated to the United States from the Ukraine with four sons in the late 19th Century. His name was Yaroshevsky. His oldest son Mark was a medical student and had a lot of problems because of that last name. No one could pronounce it. People teased him about it and one of his professors told him, if he wanted to practice medicine in New England he needed to find a more “American” sounding name. He was so fed up he decided to change it and said, “The first streetcar I ride home will be my new last name.” He rode home on the Plainfield Streetcar. His father, Old Man Plainfield, also changed his name. One brother shortened his name to Yarris, another changed it to Kolitz and one kept the original Yaroshevsky. After the name change, Old Man Plainfield, had a fifth son, Samuel, who was Sanford’s dad. As far as the family knows, they are the only people in the country with that name. I begin with this story because, as I spoke to Mark and Kim about their father, what became clear is that Sanford, in many ways, constructed his life as he wished to live it – much as his uncle and grandfather constructed a new identity as Americans with their new last name.
Sanford Plainfield was born in 1922 in Providence, Rhode Island, the oldest son of Samuel Plainfield and Esther Cohen. Sanford had one brother, Robert, eight years his junior. Family life was not easy or happy. Esther worked as a grocery clerk and. Samuel traded in wholesale jewelry. Neither one had much education. From a very young age Sanford’s father was never around for him. He, his brother, and his mother moved frequently – 25 times by one count, before Sanford graduated high school. But he had great memories of good times with his friends: ice skating adventures and sailing. One of his friends built a boat in his basement only to discover that it was too big to get out. So they took it apart, then reassembled it outside and took it down to the water for its maiden voyage where it promptly sank. Nonetheless this was a clue to Sanford’s lifelong love of the sea and sailing. Every summer Sanford would go to Kansas City to work for his maternal uncle, Max Coe to earn money for college. In fact Sanford began working very early on his life. He was compelled to learn self reliance and because of this grew to be a man that every one else relied upon. Despite his difficult family life, he supported his mother and father until their deaths.
He went to Hope High School in Providence and graduated in 1941. School was really important to Sanford and he excelled. Edna McDonald stands out among his teachers. She was his guidance counselor and taught English literature. She was a real mentor to him and Sanford stayed close to her until she died. I don’t know if she sparked his love of literature or nurtured it but Sanford was a voracious reader his entire life. Mark and Kim remember Sanford reading Edgar Rice Burroughs, Rudyard Kipling, Jules Verne and Mark Twain to them at night.
Sanford’s favorite uncle was Mark, who became the first Jew to be licensed as a physician in Rhode Island. He was a role model for Sanford. Sanford’s oldest son, Mark, is named after Uncle Mark and Mark Twain. Kim was named after Rudyard Kipling’s Kim the Jungle Boy from The Jungle Book.
It may be that Sanford’s tough early years inspired him to be a great father and a loving husband. He was determined to heal what was broken in his past.
Sanford wanted to be an artist. He earned acceptance and scholarships to the Rhode Island School of Design and the Pratt Institute in New York. Kim says that the summer after his graduation Sanford ran across a friend who he had known in high school, who he thought was a great artist, and he told Sanford he was having a hard time making it. Mark says that he may be confusing his dad’s decision with Summerset Maugham’s novel, “Of Human Bondage.” In that story the main character has the courage to ask his teacher whether he is truly talented enough to make it as an artist. The teacher tells the student, “you’re good but you’ll never be great”. In the story the student struggles on to find his true vocation as a doctor. It may have been a combination of the two, but we know Sanford chose to become a dentist and built a remarkable career. He continued to paint and sketch his entire life. He loved art – to make it and to study it, to find opportunities to see it, to integrate into his teaching and to share it with his family.
But first, the Second World War intervened. Sanford enlisted in the Army in October 1942. He tested high and qualified for Officer Candidates School .The Army sent him to Santa Rosa Junior College. That is where he met his beloved Ruth, where they courted, and became engaged. That marriage would last until Ruth’s death just two months ago. They had a passionate and loving marriage. They wrote love letters to each other every day while they were apart during the three years of their engagement. Here is a short passage from Ruth to Sanford on his graduation from dental school that gives you taste of that love, “My love for you carries every faith in your ability to succeed, to heal, to be kind, to understand, to see and hear even when others cannot – every faith that you as a man will be quite singular in your life because you see what is really there…”
Mark described his father as a complete romantic. Kim says that at Santa Rosa Junior College Sanford wore cavalry pants, riding boots, a leather jacket, a white scarf, and sunglasses. He came to his romanticism through his love of literature, his passion for nobility and service, and his urgent need to transcend the world out of which he had come. His favorite musical was “Man of La Mancha.” It spoke to his commitment to being a gentleman, to know that you may be pursuing an illusion but, none the less, you will go after it with great dignity. And Sanford was a great gentleman. He fenced, he rode, he sailed, and he treated everyone he met with gentility and respect.
Sanford originally wanted to be a doctor but a counselor suggested that there were lots of openings for dentists and dentistry was a way to combine his artistic ability with his interest in medicine. The Army and the GI Bill helped him through dental school and he became an oral surgeon. He enlisted in the Air Force during the Korean War and served at Travis AFB as an oral surgeon. Casualties were flown directly to Travis from Korea. Sanford rebuilt the faces of wounded soldiers. It was a pretty tough introduction to his field. His experiences there turned him into a life long opponent of war.
Sanford was self-disciplined. He was fiercely committed to hard work and to doing things well. Hard work was a way out for him; a way to build his life. Here is one example. His college anatomy course was extremely difficult for him. He thought he was the dumbest student in the class, so he never spoke up fearing he would embarrass himself. He wrestled with his doubts alone and in private. At the end of the semester he had the top marks in the class. Far from being the dumbest student, he had the humility to become the best.
He was an excellent oral surgeon, at the top of his field. His son Kim had a keen interest in his dad’s work and Sanford did a lot of dental work on Kim. Kim has seen a lot of dentist since then – and none of them came close to matching Sanford’s skill or technique. He was also an innovator in his field. He developed a technique called tooth transplantation. On a trip to Northern California he met a lumberman in bar who showed him a tooth in his mouth that had been knocked out. The man had washed it off and put it back in and the tooth took root. Sanford took the idea, developed it, and applied it successfully to molars. Once, he went to Paris to give a lecture to a dental convention and a Seattle dentist asked him if he knew this crazy Bay Area dentist who developed tooth transplantation. With characteristic humility, Sanford said no, he hadn’t heard of him. He was also one of the early pioneers of implantology: implanting a permanent artificial root for a prosthetic tooth.
Sanford wasn’t just competent, he was compassionate. Kim remembers when he was four years old and Mark was doing summersaults off the arm of the coach. Kim thought he’d try and he fell and hit his head on the side of the table. He had a big gash – lots of blood. He remembers his dad taking care of him. Taking him to the hospital and staying with him in the operating room during the surgery. Kim felt great comfort in that moment – not just in Sanford’s presence and love for him, but he knew that Sanford knew what he was doing, and would take care of him and that gave Kim confidence. If you visited his dental practice you would have seen huge photo montages of his patients all over the walls. It was Sanford’s way of saying, “your treatment here will involve pain, but you are safe.”
He built a successful practice and then began teaching two days a week at UCSF. He was both a great dentist and a great teacher. He taught in the School of Prosthodontics. Because of the way he approached dentistry he became concerned that UCSF was turning out technicians, rather than doctors who cared about the whole patient. So, innovator once again, he created the School of Dental Psychology. Sanford went back to SF State and earned an MA in psychology. He then developed a curriculum in dental psychology and wrote the textbook for the program, “Totality in Treatment,” in 1965 which was published by UCSF. The program became a standard part of the dental school curriculum. He also founded a free dental clinic, staffed by students, to serve those who couldn’t afford dental treatment – the destitute, people on skid row. He wanted a place where his students could use their skills in service to others and where they could learn dentistry on real people, with tough cases, in the real world.
.He was a strong liberal committed to what he felt was right and what was just. When Kennedy ran for the Democratic nomination Sanford voted for Adlai Stevenson. He was a pioneer organizer of Negro History Week in the Berkeley schools. Maybe it was because he came from Rhode Island, the state of Roger Williams, who was important to Sanford, and his experience seeing the impact of Nazism. Kim says that Sanford never tried to be fair. He just was. Whatever he did was just and right. Mark says that Sanford and Ruth were both dedicated to public service, and they supported and fed off each other.
Sanford loved the sea and anything aquatic: the ocean, and the wind. He loved sailing and was always drawing waves and boats. He was deeply moved at being propelled by the power of the wind and the forces of the sea. He owned a series of sail boats and sailed on the Bay every week, as often as he could. He taught Kim how to sail. He was fascinated by the natural world and loved animals.
During the last part of Sanford’s life he learned to let go. He retired in 1994 because he could no longer keep up with the physical demands of dentistry. It was his fondest hope that he would sell his practice that he had nurtured and loved, to someone he could trust to sustain it and be true its spirit. But the dentist who bought it ran it into the ground. Soon after he left dentistry he retired from teaching at the University. The dental psychology program was dropped. Colleagues died off. When he was no longer physically capable of sailing, he had to give up his sail boat. But he bore each loss and separation stoically and with dignity. He volunteered as a docent at the California Academy of Sciences. He led school kids on tours of the museum. So he continued to teach and stay in contact with nature.
Sanford had physical problems for many years. They began with a bad hip replacement that caused him chronic pain and loss of balance. He suffered a mini-stroke and lost part of his vision. He thought he might be going blind and wondered how he could do art if he couldn’t see? In his dignified and quiet way he decided that if he could feel then he could sculpt. Later, he suffered from dementia. Near the end of his life his leg was amputated. But when asked how he was, Sanford always answered that he was fine. He never answered any other way. He was always just fine. Coming from a hard background, Sanford constructed a full and rich life founded on love, compassion, hard work and loyalty. At the end of his life, facing physical and emotional challenges, Sanford found ways to adapt, to see what he had, and what he was capable of doing, rather than complain or dwell on what he had lost and could no longer do. He was a brave man. Always the romantic, he was a compassionate gentleman. Sanford dignified everyone around him until the end of his life.
From Friends.....
......"I never went to visit Ruth & Sanford without feeling like a better person for having been in their company, and I will cherish the memory of each of them - as well as the memory of them together - forever. I am grateful that iI can hear their voices in my head, imparting words of wisdom or sharing a funny anecdote, and I know that all of us will carry them in our hearts, memories - and ears! - as we carry on with our lives and do our best to emulate their example.".....
Betsy F.
....."I wanted to take this time to let you know what special people your parents were to Tom & I. As an employee of your dad's I can tell you my nine years with him were the best of all my 35 years of working - I worked with a man I respected every day and one who created class in his surroundings and we also had an element of fun in each day. -------They were both such a class act. We will miss them so very much.".........
Tom & Karen
For Ruth & Sanford.....In your honor a tree is being planted in a National Forest.
With fondest memories,
Toni
In Memory of Ruth Ed & Claire Liska made a contribution to Doctors without Borders
In memory of Ruth a Ulla & Phil made a contribution to Southern Poverty Law Center
We are happy that we had the chance to be with Ruth in the summer of 2007 in Gau Bickelheim.
Franz Maus
On behalf of the YWCA Board I extend our deepest sympathies. Ruth's commitment to the Berkeley YWCA as well as our YWCA was a true gift. Moreover, her dedication to improving the lives of the underserved was remarkable. In Sympathy, K.K.
Just wanted to say how sorry I am to hear of Ruth's passing. She was such a stalwart in the Berkeley Community YWCA and her deep commitment to supporting women alwasy evident. I appreciated her support of our programe at the University YWCA in Berkeley and her willingness to share 'secrets of success' . She was indeed a fine lady. J.W.
...........Ruth was always so kind and thoughful to me and I loved her very much. I have so many happy memories of being at your house for special occasions. Your mother was a great entertainer and she always made every get-together an occasion filled with joy and laughter........Barbara
.....Your mom had a special place in my life and she meant a lot to me. My wife D. also fell in love with her the moment she met her on a visit to Berkely, long ago, shortly after we married. Ruth was special that way. When I first came to Berkeley at the age of 4, we lived on Woodmont Drive, in a rented house your mother found for my parents. Shortly after we moved there I had my 4th birthday party and since we had just moved there, the only other child I knew was my sister B. Ruth came over, all festive, and turned a potentially sad and longely birthday into a rousing success. Ruth also gave me a toy car, what more could a young boy want? But it was not just any toy car - it was a Schuco car, with a steering wheel that turns the front wheels, doors that opened, a trunk that opened and a wind-up motor - it was a work of art, the ultimate toy car of its day. It was probagly the best present I received in my entire childhood, and I treasured it always until I left for college and forgot about it.
My parents were not so much Jewish, as they were profoundly not Christian. So no Christmas trees, no Easter eggs, etc. Enter your Mom: I still fondly remember going to yuor house for Easter egg hunts, which I loved: running around your garden, finding chocolate and goodies. It is funny how these events which seem minor now that we are adults and parents, were so important and influential in our childhood. I know make sure that every year around this time my own daughter gets a chocolate bunny to eat - and it is good Swiss chocolate, too, another influcence of your Mom. The loss of Ruth is indeed a real los to you, to us and to the world.
P.P.
It is impossible to put into words how sorry I feel about the loss of your parents.......T.L.
"We find our soul when that which is most precious is taken away" Thomas Moore
Sutter VNA & Hospice
Betsy F.
....."I wanted to take this time to let you know what special people your parents were to Tom & I. As an employee of your dad's I can tell you my nine years with him were the best of all my 35 years of working - I worked with a man I respected every day and one who created class in his surroundings and we also had an element of fun in each day. -------They were both such a class act. We will miss them so very much.".........
Tom & Karen
For Ruth & Sanford.....In your honor a tree is being planted in a National Forest.
With fondest memories,
Toni
In Memory of Ruth Ed & Claire Liska made a contribution to Doctors without Borders
In memory of Ruth a Ulla & Phil made a contribution to Southern Poverty Law Center
We are happy that we had the chance to be with Ruth in the summer of 2007 in Gau Bickelheim.
Franz Maus
On behalf of the YWCA Board I extend our deepest sympathies. Ruth's commitment to the Berkeley YWCA as well as our YWCA was a true gift. Moreover, her dedication to improving the lives of the underserved was remarkable. In Sympathy, K.K.
Just wanted to say how sorry I am to hear of Ruth's passing. She was such a stalwart in the Berkeley Community YWCA and her deep commitment to supporting women alwasy evident. I appreciated her support of our programe at the University YWCA in Berkeley and her willingness to share 'secrets of success' . She was indeed a fine lady. J.W.
...........Ruth was always so kind and thoughful to me and I loved her very much. I have so many happy memories of being at your house for special occasions. Your mother was a great entertainer and she always made every get-together an occasion filled with joy and laughter........Barbara
.....Your mom had a special place in my life and she meant a lot to me. My wife D. also fell in love with her the moment she met her on a visit to Berkely, long ago, shortly after we married. Ruth was special that way. When I first came to Berkeley at the age of 4, we lived on Woodmont Drive, in a rented house your mother found for my parents. Shortly after we moved there I had my 4th birthday party and since we had just moved there, the only other child I knew was my sister B. Ruth came over, all festive, and turned a potentially sad and longely birthday into a rousing success. Ruth also gave me a toy car, what more could a young boy want? But it was not just any toy car - it was a Schuco car, with a steering wheel that turns the front wheels, doors that opened, a trunk that opened and a wind-up motor - it was a work of art, the ultimate toy car of its day. It was probagly the best present I received in my entire childhood, and I treasured it always until I left for college and forgot about it.
My parents were not so much Jewish, as they were profoundly not Christian. So no Christmas trees, no Easter eggs, etc. Enter your Mom: I still fondly remember going to yuor house for Easter egg hunts, which I loved: running around your garden, finding chocolate and goodies. It is funny how these events which seem minor now that we are adults and parents, were so important and influential in our childhood. I know make sure that every year around this time my own daughter gets a chocolate bunny to eat - and it is good Swiss chocolate, too, another influcence of your Mom. The loss of Ruth is indeed a real los to you, to us and to the world.
P.P.
It is impossible to put into words how sorry I feel about the loss of your parents.......T.L.
"We find our soul when that which is most precious is taken away" Thomas Moore
Sutter VNA & Hospice
Saturday, May 2, 2009
Reunited....
Sanfordaddy - you left our world this morning at 3am and are now reunited with Ruth. That is the most consoling and wonderful thought that helps ease our losing you now too. I thank you both for having embraced me and loved me next to Kim so unconditionally. I will always remember our singing together - "that's amore" has taken on a special meaning - it's your song now.
Your forever "daughter-in-love",
Maureen
Your forever "daughter-in-love",
Maureen
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