Excerpts of a letter from Cousin Marvin Lerner....

Starting with our beloved Zaide....such a sweet and kind man, with not a mean bone in his body.

We moved in with Babu and Zaide Lerner during the summer of 1940. Leon and I were 15, and Audrey was 5. There were 3 bedrooms in the house and 1 bathroom. Audrey and my folks took one of the bedrooms, our grandparents shared the second and Uncle Norman had the third. Zaide hired a carpenter who converted half of the garage into a fourth bedroom, which Leon and I shared.

My recollections of that era was of getting up each morning with Zaide and laying "Tfillen"...donning the phylacteries and saying the morning prayers. Needless to say, it made him very proud to have his two oldest grandsons so involved with him. Although Babu ran the house, Zaide was still king of the throne, and Rosie Lerner knew she could only go so far without incurring his wrath.

As to our adored matriarch....she was so far ahead of her time. Probably the worse Jewish cook in history, nevertheless she raised her family, played poker and "pokeeno", actively pursued her charitable endeavors, and managed to do all of this with dispatch, aplomb, and seemed totally unflappable.

I remember coming home from school to be greeted by a large poker party of eight ladies or more. Giving Babu pennies to gamble with made her day. She was fearless. I can recall her dialing the information operator for the telephone number of "Mrs. Schvartz", who was related to the "Rifkin" family from Central Avenue. No first name, no address, and yet in her inimitable style, together with her rich Jewish accent, she always managed to come up with the correct telephone number. A marvel in her own time!

And of course, my experience with her in driving cross-country from New York, and almost getting arrested at the Arizona border because of her reluctance in giving up the chicken schmaltz she got from her sister-in-law, will live in my memory forever.

Babu’s ability to command and retain respect and reverence of her children, will always be a mystery to me, and yet, her influence on her children and grandchildren represented a time and place in our heritage.

Moe Lerner...a character in his own right. Uncle Moe was the rebel of the family. He left home at an early age to become a fighter, and is still feisty today. He was always good-humored and everyone liked to joke with him and kid him. I can recall whenever the family gathered, and the traditional gin-rummy game took place, Uncle Moe was such a patsy that they would raffle him off as a partner to the les fortunate brother.

My Dad tells of a story that when Uncle Moe came home from his adventures he owned a tattoo. Until the day she died, Babu never forgave him for defacing his body. When Leon came home from the Navy with a tattoo on his arm, he never took his shirt off in front of Babu for fear that he would be disinherited. The old gal was very opinionated to say the least.

An incident that I recall about Uncle Moe was when we were living with Babu and Zaide and I worked for Uncle Moe shagging milk. He would pick me up very early in the morning and take me to the dairy with him to get his milk. We would then drive downtown and deliver milk. He was such a creature of habit, that we would always stop at the same restaurant for coffee and doughnuts...he would go to the bathroom at the same time every morning. He wouldn't vary his schedule by five minutes. One morning, we were delivering milk about 2:30am and we drove by a deserted car parked in the middle of the street. Uncle Moe backed up his truck, an in under 5 minutes achieved eternal fame in the Guiness Book of Records, by completely stripping the interior of the car. I mean, the radio, seats, wheels, and what have you. The job was so professional I couldn’t believe it! Where did he learn that?

Norm Lerner...he was seven years older than Leon and me, and was very quiet and quite reserved. Being a change of life baby, he was almost like a nephew to his older brothers. All the other boys were married and living lives of their own, while Norm was still at home. I always felt close to Norm, because of the minimal age difference I guess. When Leon and I were in High School, Norm was very kind in occasionally allowing us the use of his car. He had a little automobile called a "Crosley" which, by today's standards, was even smaller than a VW or Honda Civic. As a matter of fact, Leon and I were on a date one night and, while visiting some girls, some friends came by, lifted the car from the curb and placed it on the front porch!!! Ah...those were the days!

To me, your Dad, Irving, was the calmest, warmest, sweetest of all. He never showed any temper around me, although I was aware that he had a pretty good one. I don't remember how old I was when I went out on the truck with him, except that I recalled that you could enter the truck from both right and left sides, and that it was steered by a stick. I further recall that we had a daily routine where we stopped one particular restaurant everyday and had a large hamburger and a huge chocolate malt. He was very patient with me, as I'm sure I made many mistakes, but I always had the feeling that he enjoyed being with me, as much as I enjoyed being with him.

Uncle Lou was more removed from us than our other uncles, although I always felt he had a great fondness for all of us. I did call on him one day, when I needed a $1,000.00 loan. Although he wouldn't lend me the money, he took me to his bank, arranged the loan for me, and guaranteed it. Needless to say, I paid it back before it was due so as not to cast any aspersions upon him. Leon was closer to Uncle Lou and Aunt Yetta than I was, since Uncle Lou traveled to Minneapolis-St. Paul quite often and spent a lot of time with Leon when he was there.

Uncle Nat rates a book by himself! The most irascible, impatient, gruff Lerner of them all, I'm sure there is very little I can tell you about him that you don't already know. That gruff exterior of his hides the most generous, kindest human being I know, and like you, Nessa and Frank, he has been my second Dad, confidant, and certainly best friend!