by: ejw42
One of my first memories of Grannie Annie was her pushing me in a stroller up and down Ser Del Drive in Parsippany when I was a toddler. We loved following the same route, checking out and counting the mailboxes, and maybe even wondering through the meadow to the ShopRite parking lot off Rt 46.This past Sunday, I wanted to maximize the time my daughter, Ariella, spent with Grannie Annie before she had to go to lunch. Thus, when Ariella woke up, I took her as she was, in her PJs to visit and got her dressed there. It was there that 4 generations of Steinberger descendants shared a few last moments with Grannie Annie together. What an incredible woman…to have 7 descendants, to have lived 91 years and 8 months (if you add those numbers up, you get Chai), the courtesy to pass away on my Grandpa’s birthday so they can enjoy a reunion together, the strength to wait until my dear Ariella turned 3, the year in Judaism that we traditionally start to teach our children Torah lessons and the performance of mitzvot like lighting Shabbos candles or saying a bracha. How lucky I am that Grannie Annie shared the last 1/3 of her life with. The opportunity to spend a week during the summer at their house in New Milford, to explore the local Jewish community in Teaneck during a Shabbos stay, partaking in recreation at their swim club and getting frustrated at not be able to swim during the adult swim 15 minute block, or going for a train ride at the Van Saun park.