Suzanne Rosenberg

Celebrate the life of Suzanne Rosenberg  her service will be private. Please continue keeping the family in our prayers!!

Entrusted to Donato Askew Memorial Home

Never did I ever think. In my wildest nightmares, that I would one day have to sit down, having just turned 80 on January 3rd, to write an obituary for my 55 year old child who passed away on January 18th from an aggressive form of cancer.

But here I am, recalling all the beach road trips we took together from one coast to the other in the state of Florida. Recalling the tasks that she set for herself in both personal and professional adventures.

Suzanne was born in Brooklyn, raised in Staten Island, lived in Queens and Long Island, all in New York and then moved to Columbus, Ohio where she worked in management for Limited Brands. She then moved to New Jersey to attain a management position with KPMG which she held until her untimely death. Prior to that she worked for seven years at the youth organization, NCSY, and rose to assistant executive director of their Long Island region, where she ran events for the students and found suitable locations to do so across two states. One of her favorite signs that she inherited in that office was the “Nobody’s Coming” sign and they would fill in the name of the latest event that they worried none of the invited would attend. And each time they would be surprised when attendance totaled over 200 people. The last yearbook that she created in 1996, her last year in that position, included as in every past year, a column that she wrote. This one, being her last, gave a glimpse of the person she was and I quote:

“So, I am sitting here, like many years before this one, typing out the yearbook. It’s late. I’m tired. But I press on - the deadline date is looming ever closer. So I type out everyone’s paragraphs -  then push a few buttons to spell check all these sincere, profound paragraphs. And that is when it happens-I’m spell checking one of them and my computer, which I have always considered to be much smarter than I, gets stuck on Davey’s name. You see my computer has never come across the name Davey before and it as always gives me a polite suggestion for a properly spelled replacement. It says Davey should be Daffy. Well, I never realized that before. So I press on and find out some truly fascinating things. The name Yissy, it says , should be Hussy. Rockaway (as in Far Rockaway, NY) should be Lockjaw! Well, now I am absolutely hooked. Like I said, it’s late. I’m tired. So I bet that you are all really curious about the other regional synonyms that I discovered on this late night. Well, Erdfarb should be Aardvark, Laufer should be Loafer and Moshe should be Mushy. Evelyn is Heavenly, Joselit is Jolliest, Shabbat is Showboat (what possible significance could that have?) and last but not least Nathan, it says, should be Gnathion. That one was scary! You know what the computer says my name should be? Sesame. Go figure!”

Suzanne had no idea how many lives she affected, in all of her dealings with the people in her life. She just did what she did without realizing that what she did changed people’s lives. Everyone from her past, many of whom she had lost touch with, expressed the same feelings about the person she was to them when I tracked them down and gave them the news. She will not be forgotten!

Suzanne is survived by her sister, Deborah and her nephews, David and Joshua, who were with her at the end when she died peacefully in her sleep, having fought the good fight as long as she could. Although I, Maxine Ferber, her mother and Mike Berger, her stepfather, could not physically be with her we did get to FaceTime once before she died and although she knew her prognosis was not good she knew that her family was there for her.

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