Mazel Toy!

4'1'1

OVS And

L ittle Lady

An 18-year love a air
started with an ad.

A 1993 photo of Nonnie with Sam, Joey, Michael and Gabe.

DEBRA WEISS YASHINSKY
Special to The Jewish News

T

his is the true story of four
young men who found the
love of their life in the Jewish.
News classified ads!
In 1981, my husband Gary and I
were the adoring parents of our first-
born son, Gabriel. I was loving my time
at home with him and cherishing every
moment of my maternity leave from
teaching at Hawthorn Center.
When Gabriel was 6 months old,
Hawthorn offered me a part-time posi-
tion. I would split a teaching position
with a colleague, who also had a baby
We decided to try it, and to save on
babysitting costs, we would sit for each
other's baby on our days off
This plan looked great on paper; in
reality, it was exhausting! We were either
teaching a classroom of challenging pre-
schoolers or trying to meet the needs of
two 6-month-old babies.
The thought of hiring a stranger to
care for our beloved Gabriel was a com-
pletely foreign notion. Then I saw an ad
in the Jewish News: "Grandmother-type,
seeking child to sit for, part-time, days.
Experience, references. Southfield area."

It sounded too good to be true!
A soft, sweet voice answered the
phone. Her name was Lucene
Wasserman and, miraculously, I was the
first one to call. We arranged to meet
the next day.
Lucene arrived on time, and she was
as sweet and warm in person as she
seemed on the phone. Gabriel turned
on all the charm a 6-month-old could
muster, complete with toothless grins
and dancing eyes. As we chatted, we
discovered that Gabe's and Lucene's
birthdays were just a day apart. "It is
beshert," I thought.
Lucene told me she had been mar-
ried to a Sinai physician. She had self-
lessly devoted her life to creating a lov-
ing home for her husband and three
lovely daughters. Now, single for the
first time in many years, she was begin-
ning to carve out a new life for herself.
Her children were grown, and she
decided to seek part-time employment
doing what she loved most: taking lov-
ing care of children.
We decided to give it a try. She only
asked me for one favor. Her grandchil-
dren called her "Nonnie" and she want-
ed us to do the same.
And so began our love affair with

Nonnie. I still had
mixed feelings
about leaving
Gabriel for 20
hours a week, yet
Nonnie's loving
nature took some
of the sting away.
Gabriel bonded
with her almost
immediately, as if
he sensed she
would be a special
person in his life.
He loved books,
and Nonnie read
his favorites to
him over and over
again. Often, she
would come with a new
book for his library.
Gary and I fell in love with Nonnie
too, and felt like Gabriel had gained
another bubbie. Joey was born in
1984, and Nonnie was only too happy
to take on another charge. They met
when he was only hours old, and it
was love at first sight.
I found myself at a crossroads in my
career. Caring for our two children was
my priority. We discussed it and the
answer was easy. Given the choice, I
would rather devote my full energy and
time to my own children, although I
loved my work too.
By this time, Nonnie had become a
fixture in our lives. She continued to
babysit on Thursday afternoons, so I
could run errands. I looked forward to
seeing her as much as my children did.
We shared Chanuka, birthday parties
and nursery school programs, not to
mention endless Little League games.
Our third and fourth sons, Sam and
Michael, arrived in 1986 and 1988.
Brave soul that she is, Nonnie was
undaunted by our wild household of
four growing boys. She offered to
babysit on special occasions, and insisted
on sleeping over once a year so that

Gary and I could escape for one night.
No longer was money exchanged;
Nonnie protested whenever I tried to
squeeze bills into her hand or sneakily
drop them into her purse.
I tried to tell her that it was bagel or
doughnut money, since she never came
without bringing these treats to the boys.
We both knew we were beyond that.
We shared joys, tears, tantrums,
skinned knees, and countless hugs and
wet kisses. Nonnie was family; she came
to us at a time when we needed her ...
and she needed us too.
Nonnie loves all of our sons, each in
their own way. She has kvelled at
Gabriel's love of learning. She and Joey
chat about movies and baseball.
She even pitched to Sam, the ulti-
mate jock, in the days before he used
a hardball.
Our youngest son, Michael, and
Nonnie share a special bond. Nonnie
read to him tirelessly, for hours at a
rime, and they shared a love of fairy
tales. Eventually, he began calling her
"Cinderella" and he became her
"Prince Charming."
When someone asked then-5-year-
old Joey why the boys loved Nonnie
so much, he responded: "Because she
never yells and she never does any-
),
thing wrong.
Our simchas are sweeter because
Nonnie shares them with us. She lit her
own special candle at Gabe and Joey's
bar mitzvahs. She has been by our side
during our times of greatest joy and
deepest sorrows.
The last few years have not been easy
for Nonnie. Her health has not been
great and she does not get out as much.
Yet, her sense of humor, unwavering
spirit and love for our children holds
fast. When we hear a familiar horn
honking in our driveway, we know it is
Nonnie. The boys tower over her now,
and bend to hug and kiss her. Eighteen
years later, she continues to bring
doughnuts to her four young men. fl

7/3C

19T.

Detroit Jewish News

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