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in
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PHOTO BY BRETT MOUNTAIN
profile
Love, Laugh —
And Help Each Other
SHARI S. COHEN CONTRIBUTING WRITER
A centenarian and his “rescuer” —
his cousin — live one day at a time,
with humor and humanity.
PHOTO BY BRETT MOUNTAIN
ABOVE: Manny
and his care-
taker, cousin Vicki
Howard, have a
special, playful
bond. TOP: Manny
Silverman turns
101 on July 15.
B
y any standard, Vicki Howard qualifies as a mentsh — “a
person of integrity and honor.” Vicki, 62, has cared for her
100-year-old second cousin, Manny (Emanuel) Silverman,
in her Huntington Woods home for the past 10 years. She also
took care of her mother when she had cancer and assists an elder-
ly aunt and uncle.
“We’re running a senior center,” she laughs of the home she
shares with Devlin Burton, her partner of 36 years. “I’ve always
been kind and sensitive to elders, but this has taught me how vital
seniors are. It has taught me how they love unconditionally and
how you can care for them more deeply than you expect.”
Vicki and Manny were close when she was growing up in
Detroit. “I was the child he never had,” she says. “He would read
to me, and his wife, Babs, who was an artist, painted with me. He
took me fishing,”
Vicki remembers Manny as kind and generous, to her and to
others. He offered to send her to college. He and his wife would
often visit residents of what was then the Jewish Old Folks Home.
Manny owned Oak Park Tool & Die and also was an inventor.
“He has done amazing things — inventing the synthetic ruby, the
rear-screen projection for movie theaters. He was a scientist —
continued on page 12
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July 6 • 2017
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