Ruth Edith Goldstein

Ruth Edith Goldstein

Ruth Edith Goldstein was born 10 April 1936 to Albert and Beatrice (Betty) Gabberty in East Hempstead, Long Island, NY. She was the 4th of 5 children (Albert Jr, Donald, Charles, Ruth and Jane) and the first girl. She spent her youth and early teen years living on Long Island. After a year in West Texas where her father was working on a pipeline, they moved back to NY and settled in the small town of Richfield Springs. She began high school there, with the highlight being a notable incident involving hoisting an outhouse up the flagpole. She dropped out short of her degree because she disagreed with school requirements and began working at a diner in Richfield Springs.

In 1953 she met a local farmer & mechanic, Sydney Goldstein, when he came into the diner. On first sight she decided that was the man she was going to marry. After a courtship that included parking at the reservoir above town, they married in 1954. For the first several years they lived locally including time with her parents, and began their family which grew to 4 boys: David, Rick, Tim and Jeff. David & Rick were both born there and then following the failure of Syd’s hopes of buying a farm of his own, they moved to the Rochester area. Ruth was delighted to living in a modern ranch style house in Henrietta NY where the last 2 boys were born.

Thereafter she was busy with her family, making wonderful meals and making holidays sparkle with home baked treats and special decorations. In 1964 the family returned to Central NY, buying a small farm ½ mile up the road from Syd’s childhood home. Her cooking branched out to include the radical dish of Swedish Meatballs, which, despite the initial dubious reaction from the family, became part of the regular dinner rotation. Various dogs, cats and hamsters shared the family home, but the highlight was Ruth’s adoption of a baby racoon, Chatterbox. He lived in the house like any indoor pet, and delighted all with his antics. Ruth was active with the Woman’s Fellowship at the local United Church of Crist and with the Garden Club in Sauquoit. Her yard as always full of beautiful flowers.

As the inevitable happened, her boys grew up and began to move away. Ruth got her GED diploma and then attended community college and earned her LPN, both of which she was very proud of. After a brief time working in a hospital, she did home care nursing for a number of years.

In 1991 an opportunity arose to purchase a home in Fort Pierce and she and her husband launched into the snowbird life. After about 5 years they moved permanently to her current home and sold the old farm. Her years in Florida were a delight, even after the death of her husband. She greatly enjoyed the camaraderie of the park, playing on a Bocce Team, the Handbell Choir and having a regular morning coffee group, the Liar’s Club. These years also gave her a chance to pursue her long held desire to travel. She enjoyed trips to the Caribbean, England and Scotland, China, the Holy Land and Alaska.

She was diagnosed with metastatic ovarian cancer in 2018 and impressed many with her positive and optimistic outlook as she sailed through several rounds of chemotherapy. She carried the same uncomplaining and no-nonsense attitude into her last chapter with this cancer, telling jokes and directing those who were providing her care. She passed peacefully with several members of her family there.

Enjoy a video interview of Ruth at http://bit.ly/RuthGoldstein (Case Sensitive)