Minerva Peck (Fertel)

Minerva (“Min”) was born on May 30, 1900. She spent her early life in one of the closer-in areas of Brooklyn (Williamburg? Greenpoint?). She was the only girl of four children. Her father owned a grocery store. Her mother kept a kosher home, and her brothers received some religious education, but she did not.

In high school, Min became an accomplished typist. After graduating from high school, she obtained a position as secretary to a firm of patent lawyers. She was always very proud of this job, and admired her employers very much. She was apparently a highly valued employee, as they gave her a generous gift of a set of Limoges china on her marriage.

Min met and dated Herman Peck, a pharmacist. After a courtship of a couple of years, they were married on June 10, 1924. Their first child, Ruth, was born exactly one year later. Min and Herm moved to an apartment on Avenue P and West 6th Street in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn, where they lived for about the next forty years. Here they raised their two daughters, Ruth and Marge. At some point, Min’s parents also moved into the apartment.

Min returned to work when her children were older, perhaps during World War II. She took a job with the federal government at the Brooklyn Navy Yards. Later she worked for Abraham & Strauss Department Stores, also as a secretary, and continued to return there on a part-time and temporary basis after her retirement, well into her seventies or perhaps even her eighties

Min and Herm had a few couples with whom they were close friends, including prominently Harry and Florence Rabinowitz. They would go together to Florida in the winter for several weeks. Min also had a close friend from her youth, Florence Jackson, a childless woman of some means who lived in Manhattan and left her some of her jewelry on her death. Min was close with her brothers, especially the youngest, Ben, who remained in the New York area. She admired her older brothers, especially Arthur, an accomplished civil engineer.

Min was scrupulously honest. She took pride in speaking grammatically, and when asked “who is it?” when she rang the bell, would always respond “It is I.” She was rather nervous, her grandchildren called her “Minervous” because she would get nervous if they went too high in the swing. On the very rare occasions when she drank a miniscule amount of alcohol, she would become giddy after one or two sips. She had a good sense of humor. She liked to treat her grandchildren to different things. She arrived very early by subway from Brooklyn, and was second on a very long line for tickets to see the movie Mary Poppins. She was very frugal, but enjoyed giving cash gifts to her children and grandchildren, as well as buying them things.

In the late 1960’s or early 1970’s, Min and Herm moved to an apartment in a building at 1801 Ocean Avenue. They visited Florida for a few weeks each winter. They would also visit Marge and her family in Pittsburgh. Min never learned to drive, or to swim. She was however, quite active into her old age. She was a dutiful niece, and visited her Aunt Bertha and Uncle Dave at her uncle’s apartment in New York, and later visited Bertha at the Hebrew Home for the Blind in Riverdale when her aunt was 100 and she herself was in her eighties.

After Herman’s death, Min became more friendly with other widowed women in her building. Although most of them were younger than she, she would help them with their shopping and other errands. She would travel to Manhattan or the Bronx by subway or by express bus. She was also always willing to come visit Ruth in Manhattan, and into her eighties would offer to do shopping, return things to stores, or do other errands for Ruth.

	In her last years, Min developed mild senile dementia.  Feeling that it was no longer safe for Min to live on her own, Ruth and Marge decided on an assisted living facility in Long Beach, Long Island, where a friend of Min’s from her building had moved.  She moved there at the age of 93 and lived there until her death at 95.  The facility was on the beach, and Min enjoyed walking on the boardwalk, as well as visits to and from Ruth and her children and less frequent visits (due to the much longer distance) from Marge and her children. She enjoyed being a great-grandmother to Ellie’s three boys and to Susan’s first child, Leon.  Marge was able to come and be with Min during her last days, which were spent in the local hospital, where she died of congestive heart failure.