Tag Archives ⇒ Liz klein

Saying goodbye to Mom 

August 15, 2015
· Martin Kelley

We had a small fam­i­ly memo­r­i­al ser­vice for my moth­er Liz Klein in the his­toric Rit­ten­house­town sec­tion of Philadel­phia, fol­lowed by a scat­ter­ing of ash­es into the waters of her beloved Paper Mill Run (aka Mono­shone Creek), a trib­u­tary of the Wis­sahick­on. After­wards we all gath­ered at Sazon, a great Venezue­lan restau­rant on Spring Gar­den Street with yum­my chocolates.

Fam­i­ly and friends gather 
My broth­er John reads a eulo­gy. His wife Eileen holds sun­flow­ers she brought for later 
Eileen and grand­daugh­ter Rose 
We move up a tributary 
We pour the ash­es into the creek and peo­ple are invit­ed to release a sunflower. 
Gath­ered on the rocks 
Lau­ra plays on the rock 
Tris­tan in the creek 
Cousin Mar­garet brought a sym­bol­ic Lib­er­ty Bell 
The old paper mill building. 
An old rock dam 
My best friend from high school, Rui, and I take a selfie. 
At lunch after­wards at Sazon on Spring Gar­den Street, cousins Rose and Gre­go­ry dance. 
One of the restau­rant own­ers tells us about chocolates. 

Liz (Betsy) Klein(top) aka Mom

July 22, 2015
· Martin Kelley

My mom Liz just passed away tonight. It’s not unex­pect­ed. And sad­ly, giv­en her health, it’s per­haps not even so trag­ic; she’s been declin­ing for years from Alzheimer’s and all but stopped eat­ing in recent weeks. I’m sure I’ll find voice to tell some sto­ries in the months ahead, but for now I’ll share some pic­tures. She would have turned 85 next month.

Liz Klein­top, 1950 or 51, approx 20 years old 
The last vis­it with my kids, May 2015. 
Danc­ing with Theo, Christ­mas 2009 
In Octo­ber 2007 we had a fam­i­ly week­end at a B&B in Stras­burg Pa train coun­try. Here Theo explains some­thing to her at Cher­ry Crest Farm. 
Fran­cis explores her new room, July 2013. 
Liz and my wife Julie at Long­wood Gar­dens, Spring 2006. 
Enjoy­ing pol­ka night at the Ukrain­ian hall in Mil­lville, N.J.,following grand­daugh­ter Lau­ra’s baptism. 
April 2003, on one of our stand­ing weeky lunch dates. 
A vis­it to her inde­pen­dent liv­ing apart­ment, July 2012. 
Prob­a­bly the old­est pic­ture of Liz I have, from 1931. Eliz­a­beth “Lizzie” “Gram­my” Williams Noll, Eliz­a­beth Klein­top, Puerette “Puri” “Pap­py” Noll. On porch of Colum­bia Ave. home, Palmerton. 

A note about names: she was born in late sum­mer 1930 as Eliz­a­beth Ann Klein­top. In her adult life she went as Bet­sy and took the last names of her part­ners. In her late 60s she decid­ed to take back a vari­a­tion of her last name and overnight Bet­sy Kel­ley became Liz Klein.