Bella Grossman—

Centenarian Has A Family Tree

With Branches In Newtown

Bella Grossman, the mother of Dr Robert Grossman of Mt Pleasant Road, celebrated her 100th birthday on November 19.

“She’s an incredible woman — sharp as a tack, with an incredible sense of direction. She can still tell you how to get to any place in New York City,” Dr Grossman said.

A full-time Florida resident since 1971, Bella Grossman grew up in Brooklyn and married Jacob Grossman, who was a lawyer in New York City, in 1927. A graduate of Hunter College, she taught elementary school in Brooklyn for 30 years, retiring in 1963.

“It was during the Depression when I got out of college, and there weren’t any teaching jobs, so I started as a school secretary,” Mrs Grossman said. “I did that for a few years until a teaching job opened up.”

The Grossmans had two children, Robert, a coroner and retired Danbury Hospital surgeon, and Ruth Karter of Great Neck, N.Y., who winters in Florida with her husband, Dr Jessie Karter, a dentist.

“My father was born in the Ukraine in 1860 and came to the United States in 1883,” Mrs Grossman said. “My mother came from the same town but they met here.”

The family grew to include six girls, one of whom died from diphtheria; another was killed in an accident. But three of the others reached the age of 100. Pearl Olfosky died recently at the age of 105½ ; Zipporah Nankin was nearly 102. Baby sister, Edith Garson, is 87.

Bella Grossman credits her longevity to good genes.

“I don’t diet — I eat everything,” she said. “I’m a chocoholic  — I love chocolate. But I never smoked and I don’t drink. Well, if I’m out I will have a drink, but I don’t make a habit of it.”

Mrs Grossman admits to being a good bridge player and being handy with a computer.

“I learned to use the computer five years ago,” she said. “I took some classes at the library and my grandchildren also showed me how to use it. I love it. I keep in touch with everyone and I even write letters to the editor that get published.”

She has six grandchildren and ten great-grandchildren, all of whom she hopes to see at a big family party in December when school is out. They include Robert and Annamae’s three children: John Grossman, and his daughters, Melissa and Lisa, of Newtown; David Grossman of Danbury, and Army and Ron Katriel and their daughters, Elizabeth and Katherine, of Oakland, N.J.

 On Bella Grossman’s birthday, several of the groups that she is active in feted her. There were several hundred people, Dr Grossman said.

“I can hardly believe that I am 100. I don’t feel 100,” Bella Grossman said. “Of course, like anyone, I have some [medical] problems but I don’t try to think about them. I don’t get upset.”

What seems most remarkable to Bella Grossman is the fact that when she was born in 1905, the nation was only 116 years old.

“The Constitution was signed in 1789,” she said. “It’s incredible to think of how young the country was then, and how many changes have occurred since then.”

Recently Mrs Grossman, who lives in Coconut Grove, Fla., experienced Hurricane Wilma when it left a path of destruction through the greater Miami-Fort Lauderdale area.

“We didn’t have power for four days,” she said. “The worst part of the storm was that it practically decimated trees that were hundreds of years old, trees that had been written about, trees that had a history.”

Just like Bella Grossman.