Consistent with the Jessie we know and love, her retirement existed primarily in name only. Jessie helped Jerry manage the antiques business, becoming quite adept at repairing damaged antiques and applying her famous sense of style to creating beautiful displays of merchandise and dealing with the paperwork that was never Jerry’s strong suit. Jessie spent quality time with dear friends, and continued to take in young people who needed a bit of that “Jessie love”. Jessie spent more and more time in California, first helping the family deal with the illness and tragic death of her beloved younger brother, always contemplating a move of her own.
Although Jessie dealt with many health issues of her own over the years, including near constant bouts of pneumonia, and a crazy series of orthopedic challenges, she was never deterred. A shocking and devastating tornado in 2017 destroyed most of their Annandale Va home, forcing new decisions to be made. In 2018 they finally moved to Santa Cruz California, in a sprawling apartment that Jerry pronounced “pretty good” that was close to her daughter Liz and other close family. Jerry died very shortly thereafter, late one evening after enjoying a fancy shrimp dinner with family.
Jessie thrived in California, making lots of new friends, becoming active in the local Democratic Party, and studying Yiddish at the local university. She always loved the ocean, truly a special place for her, and she would frequently make the short drive to Natural Bridges State Park just to watch the waves crash along the coastline.
COVID changed life for everyone, including Jessie. In March 2020 she was whisked away to her daughter’s rural retreat in the Santa Cruz mountains, where our city-girl began to appreciate for the first time the beauty and wonder of a pastoral existence. Jessie loved all the many birds attracted to the large persimmon tree outside the door of her little house (built years before in the hope she would eventually settle there) and she began researching birds so that she could identify them. She saw bobcats several times, and of course the many rabbits, deer and turkeys, full of wonder. Most recently she had the amazing joy of seeing coyotes wander by her window, though she had to be assured that no, they were not foxes.
Daily conversations included whether the evening’s sunset was less or more dramatic than the evening before, talking politics with her daughter and son-in-law, and many, many long telephone conversations with her dear grandchildren and many close friends who kept in frequent touch with her during what was such an isolated time for so many.