Edith ‘Chickie’ Rosenberg7 August 1939 – 6 August 2013
Edith ‘Chickie’ Rosenberg
7 August 1939 – 6 August 2013
Chickie has been one of the most cheerful and spirited people I have been privileged to have known. Her maiden name was Zimmerman, so in high school we were always sat next to each other and, as a result, became good friends. In the spring of 2007, I forwarded to various friends an email on how to recognise if someone had a stroke and what to do in such a case. Chickie wrote to me on the 16th of May of that year after attending a funeral to tell me someone sitting in the row ahead of her had a stroke and because of my email forward she knew what to do and was of help.
On the 14th of January of 2009, she wrote me again the following: “My life which usually goes super smoothly has caught a huge glitch. Last week, basically out of the blue, (no symptoms) I was diagnosed with ovarian cancer. I am having surgery in at Lenox Hill hospital in NY this Friday and will then have to do chemo. It'll be a long recovery, so I will actually get to finish reading Proust's In Search of Lost Times as I now only have 2 more volumes to go.” It was indeed a long and excruciating recovery, but indomitable Chickie did it. Chickie recovered and was able to return to teaching snowboarding which, relatively late in life, had become her passion. http://www.faboverfifty.com/wstyleblog.php/?p=21271
On the 20th of September of 2009, Chickie wrote “We are in VT where just a few trees have started turning color. But it is really beautiful. It's so wonderful to be alive!”
Chickie was a docent at the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art, for the Newark Museum of Art, and I believe with several other museums as well. She also was instrumental for our high school reunions and arranged the catering for our most recent one last year. An inveterate traveller, she and Paul went on a ski trip in Italy’s Aosta Valley in February, 2011 and then went on to the Rijks, Stedelijk and Van Gogh museums in Amsterdam as well as the Amsterdam Historical Museum and the Museum Willet-Holthuysen and a visit to the Art Deco room of the American Hotel – and all this in Amsterdam in three days.
On the 8th of August of 2011, Chickie wrote to me the following: “Other not so great news: I've come out of remission and am back on chemo. But the summer is my downtime and they hope to have me back on snow this winter. We will also hope to take a ski/snowboading trip in mid March in Austria and then several days in Budapest. Will be in touch.” When Hurricane Irene was about to strike New Jersey, she and husband Paul retreated to their winter home in Killington, Vermont. Irene verged, and their house suddenly became an inaccessible island. In the midst of her chemo treatments, a helicopter was finally arranged to get her out until, at the last moment, a road was opened.
In October of 2012, Richard and I visited Chickie and Paul in Killington. It was a lovely time – as all times with the two of them always were. Two of the most outgoing people I have known, they knew *everyone* and were never hindered by any semblance of a social barrier. In November of 2012, Chickie took my daughter Chloe to the Andy Warhol exhibition in New York.
In an email titled “lousy luck” and sent 30 January 2013, I received the following: “It's time I filled you in:. For once I was organized and finished my holiday letter and cards and we left for a long vacation time to spend in VT starting with an Eastern Snowboard instructor's rally the weekend of Dec. 15. Well, for the guys in the group, they were very excited to be snowboarding at Killington because we are the largest ski area in the Eastern North America and we open before anyone else. But for me, conditions were not great and then I seemed to have problems doing my heelside turn so I told the group as it's my home mountain, I can go anywhere anytime, so I'll just meet them for lunch. And I had a funny feeling...so I called NY at Sloan Kettering and my lousy luck: 1% of women who have ovarian cancer have it move up to the brain, the lower lobe which is in the rear of the cerebellum which is the center of balance for the body! Had I not been snowboarding I would probably not have noticed any balance change and would simply have died by now! So we came home, I was admitted to Memorial Hospital (Sloan Kettering), and then had 14 sessions or radiation which sort of left me into outer space as Paul said I did not know who I was, where I was, and I was sort of psychotic! The steroids sort of puffed up my face, and it's scary to see my reflection in the mirror! My hair doesn't fall out now from chemo which I will be starting again in a few weeks, but it all fell out from the radiation! And I'm staying home (can't drive) as the weather has been bitter bitter cold , suffering from extreme fatigue. But I'm alive, so I send you my love, but I'm still here, although I seem to have lost about a month or so of my life...not a big deal. Just hope all these meds drain out of my body, and the good news is that I saved that expensive wig ($4,000 +) from 4 years ago! Much love, Chickie”
On 16 February: “I'm actually very pleased with your email, mostly because you, Michael, seem to have so many email addresses that I really wasn't sure if you had any idea of what we have been dealing with here. I never meant my health to become a group reply. Well, it took radiation treatments to the brain (I'll learn next week if they were successsful) plus several hospital stays to deal with pneumonia, but hopefully I will recover somewhat. I was too weak to begin chemo last week and the radiation leaves one with fatigue, but I have an appointment next week and maybe I can start chemo then. In the meantime, missing you both and remembering how much we all enjoy each other's company! Much love, Chickie”
The last I heard from Chickie was the following day: “Thanks! It's hard to keep track of email addresses when one is feeling normal, so please excuse my worry that you might not know what we are going through. Last week they said I was not strong enough for the chemo, but let's hope for this week's appointment. Love, Chickie”
We were informed by Paul and by Fred that the end was now near. Today I received the following from Fred: “Chickie died last night. Her long ordeal is over. There will be a funeral service at the Bernheim, Apter, Kreitzman Chapel on 68 Old Short Hills Road in Livingston, on Friday August 9 at 10 AM.” My deepest sympathies and condolences are now with Paul and his daughter. May Chickie now be painlessly free, and may her spirit soar! She is profoundly to be missed.