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He came with his two older brothers and left the rest of his family in Hungary. Unfortunately, the rest of his siblings and family were unable to come to America and ended up dying during the Holocaust. -
She came when she was only 13 years old.
(born Sadie Roth, later Sadie Glantz) -
She was the youngest of 3 sisters. Born in Newark New Jersey. She was born in the house (54 16th Avenue) because her father was worried the doctors would switch babies while in the hospital. -
The family chose to move to Cambridge, MA when she was 16 and in her senior year of high school. She was smart and able to skip a year in school resulting in her young age at graduation. -
She became a secretary at a place that manufactured fluorescent light fixtures. The place was on Covington Street. She was the secretary until the two male bookkeepers (17 or 18 y/o) got drafted into the war (WWII). She then took over the job of those two on top of her own job all by herself. She quit a few years later after being sexually harassed by the owner of the company -
she was at this job until she got married -
They met on a blind date which was set up by mutual friends. -
Bernice only left home to live without her parents once she was married. They moved to an apartment in Cambridge - 850 Mass Ave. The Star Realty office was in the basement of their apartment building. -
Star Realty was a struggling realty company started by her husband's parents. After several years in the pharmaceutical industry, Lenny joined the family business and was able to expand and eventually generate annual revenue of $12M. She was the bookkeeper for this company. The company was in commercial real estate sales. -
They moved into a house in Newton, 60 Waban Hill Rd. She has lived here ever since and after their initial decorating, she has made no updates/renovations to the house. -
During this time she was a stay-at-home mom but still did the bookkeeping for Star Realty. -
Having grown up in the city, Bernice didn't see a need to get driver's license. After moving to Newton, she took lessons but didn't tell anyone in case she didn't pass. Her first car was a Ford Taurus wagon - It was an automatic car and she never learned to drive a stick shift. -
Lenny was getting sick and he wanted her to take over the family business when he was gone. She didn't want to get her license but he challenged her and said he didn't think she could do it and so she wanted to prove him wrong. She studied for hours, even when he took her on a cruise, and she passed the test on her first try. -
After Lenny died, she took over the company and had about 6-8 brokers working for her. Irving Fanger was Lenny's lawyer. -
This was at a time when the commercial real estate market was doing poorly. She was 64. -
Irving Fanger and Pearl Palefsky were married for over 50 years when Pearl passed away. They had four girls together together. -
Coming into the marriage, Irving was the father to Barbara Fanger Shuman, Carol Fanger Bell, Laora Fanger, and Linda Jokinen. Bernice was coming in with Rabbi Susan Abramson and Leslie Abramson. Combined, Irving and Bernice had ten grandchildren and eight great-grandchildren, me being one of them. Barbara is my grandmother and my mom's mother. Barbara had two girls, My mom Merrill and my Aunty Karen. -
Evan and Zanny were the first two of Bernice and Irving's great-grandchildren. They are also my first cousins. -
Merrill was grandaughter number 2 of Irving's 10 grandchildren. And she will tell you, his favorite. -
Sofia was one of Bernice and Irving's great-grandchildren and my older sister. -
John was one of Bernice and Irving's eight great-grandchildren. -
Irving was a WWII Veteran and a graduate of Yale University (Class of 1939) and Harvard Law School (Class of 1942). -
Bernice continues to live alone in the same house she moved into 70 years ago and cherishes her family and really enjoys visits from my mother and me. She has lived a fascinating long life and I was happy to learn and document her history.