Cohen family yearly recap, 2016

Dear Friends and Family,

Happy New Year!  We hope you all had a wonderful 2016.  My year started off great with a trip in January to Grenada with my sister Susan and her friends.  My friend Debbie Lapidus joined us too.  It was wonderful to get away while the northeast was having their first snow storm.  A lot of laughs and swimming occurred (Editor’s note: not as many laughs at home, especially with lots of snow-blowing and shoveling!).

During the February break, my parents took the entire Gray clan to Woodloch Pines. It was the first time for us, and we had lots of fun, and of course a great time being with the entire family. Brian and I also did a couple of mini road trips with Rebecca to look at colleges.

This summer we went to London for about two weeks, and then headed off to Rome to visit the Vatican for a few days.  We love Europe, and London was lots of fun. We were very fortunate to stay at Brian’s cousin’s home in St. John’s Wood while we were there.  They were in Sag Harbor for the summer so we had their home to ourselves (we got to see them during our annual “Sag Harbor visit” which we look forward to catching up with Brian’s cousins at that time).  In London, we did quite a few walking tours, visited Stonehenge, Oxford, and Cambridge (while in Cambridge we met Amanda’s friend Rachel who was working there for the summer), We saw and did a lot while we were there.

Amanda and Rebecca with the London Eye in the background

  

Selfie of the 4 of us at Stonehenge

Off to Rome to see the Vatican, which is unbelievable!  Then luck would have it again my flight home was cancelled, so Rebecca and I had to stay another day.  Back to the Vatican we went again to climb the copula and then did a tour of the crypts and catacombs of Rome, which while it was fun, was also kind of creepy.

By the Trevi Fountain in Rome

During the year, there were a couple of milestone birthdays that we celebrated. The most recent was of Brian's brother Ben in December. He turned 40, and we celebrated with him and a few of his friends to a steakhouse in NYC (Spark's). The other was my mom, who turned 75 this past May. She continues to work her way through retirement, still at the library. She does it because she still loves doing it, and she also keeps busy socially as well. Getting back to her birthday, we surprised her one day at her house where the entire clan was doing a work day to help around the house and outside. The surprise was when "Chef Lance" came ringing the doorbell, loaded with appetizers, and a full gourmet dinner and dessert to prepare for all of us in her house. It was a great time, as well as delicious!

Lauren, Mom, Susan, Chef Lance, Amanda, Ali, and Sami in the background

Earlier in the year, Amanda took a course and became licensed as a Certified Nursing Assistant (CNA), and worked part-time at Old Navy and Macy’s. Before we headed to England, Amanda was offered a full-time job at Stony Brook University hospital as a desk clerk in the ER department.  She truly enjoys her job and is excited to go to work every day, and has some interesting stories already from her experiences there.  She works the night shift 11pm to 7:30 am, and then she comes home, sees us on our way out, and sleeps. We then will wake her for dinner, and as we get ready for bed, she is off to work. Rebecca also got a job this summer working in the local grocery store.  She started in the spring and continues to work there during school.  It is also handy that we gave her Grandma Sue’s car to drive, so we rarely drive the kids anywhere any longer.

In August, my family came down to visit because dad had knee replacement surgery (he is doing great). While he was in the hospital we went to the ocean before visiting him.  While jumping in the waves, I turned around to look for my nephew Lucas, and then hit by surprise by another wave.  No worry, until I couldn’t stand up, my ankle was a flop (ends up broken in three places).  Thank goodness my sister Susan was on shore to help me out of the water with another gentleman.  Lifeguards, EMT’s and a lot of action took place.  I insisted that Susan drive me up to Huntington Hospital because Dad’s orthopedic surgeon was on call that weekend.  As we call him in the Gray clan “Dr. McHottie”: just ask my sisters.  In my wet, sand filled bathing suit off to hospital I went to have pins and plates put in for emergency surgery.  Yes, Dr. McHottie did do my surgery.  Dad and I were on the same floor recovering, which made it super easy for everyone.  The nurse would roll me down the hallway to see dad, and we even had dinner together one night.  I kid you not, we had a lot of laughs, though a broken ankle is not fun.  I had a hard cast, soft cast, walking boot, walker, crutches, and a knee scooter.  The scooter was lots of fun.  Brian let me deck out the one for school with a bell and streamers.  It even had a basket, goes super fast and my principal once gave me a speeding ticket.  Oh and PT 3x a week.  

So even though I had fun with it, I wouldn’t recommend breaking an ankle to anyone.  I am all done with PT now, though it is still swollen and I can only wear my sneakers, since I can’t fit into my shoes still.  In some ways I feel like Cinderella when she didn’t fit into the glass slipper, however, I still have my prince charming Brian! He was wonderful during the entire process (no Editor’s note needed J)

Fall came and Rebecca applied to a few schools.  She has heard some quite a few with acceptances.  Right now her top picks are the University of Delaware and the University of Pittsburgh.  She wants a medium-semi big school and is interested in entrepreneurship and business/accounting. On an exciting note, her cheerleading team made it to the national competition in Disney World for this February.  It is the first time in Harborfields history that the cheerleading team has been invited to go.  Needless to say we are all very excited for them. 

Brian still enjoys Landmark Wealth Management, which is a good thing because he is a part owner.   I continue to enjoy being a speech therapist.  The children are so much fun and we laugh and laugh.  Amanda is happy and working hard.  She has a boyfriend named Rob, they enjoy hanging out and doing things such as going to ghost tours.  Rebecca is still waiting to hear from more schools, then we will go and do more visits, and then a final decision will be made of where she wants to go.

We wish everyone a Happy New Year and a healthy 2017 filled with adventures and laughter.

Cheers,

Debbie, Brian, Amanda, and Rebecca (and Buddy too)

Cohen family yearly recap, 2015

Dear family and friends,

Happy New Year!  I hope this email finds you all happy and healthy.  

The year 2015 was had a lot of ups and downs here in the Cohen household.

We’ll start with the biggest down. Brian’s mom “Grandma Sue” had some circulation issues with her legs and had been in the hospital a couple of times starting around early March. Long story short, when she went back in the hospital in late September, there was a complication, and she passed away suddenly October 5^th. It was a tough loss for all. On the positive side, she did not suffer, and all of us as well as Ben were able to be by her bedside. In addition,  she had about half of her lung removed due to cancer 15 years ago, and it was in her lymph nodes. We focus on the fact that we were fortunate to get so many extra years with her.

Around the same time Brian’s mom first went into the hospital in March, my Dad had an infection in his knee (this was about two weeks after we all had gotten together to celebrate his 75th birthday at a restaurant in Connecticut). He was on the operating table about to go under to replace his knee, when he had a MAJOR heart attack. Luckily, he was not under anesthesia at that time because he would not have made it.  From there it was one thing after another; most things that could go wrong did.  He was in the hospital from March until May.  Luckily for me he was here in Huntington Hospital which is down the street.  We were able to see him every day.  Then he was off to rehab for a couple of weeks recovering. 

Just before Dad was in the hospital, I celebrated my 50th birthday in Manhattan with my mom and sisters for a long weekend.  We had so much fun and laughter.  It was a great getaway for all of us.  I also had another weekend of celebration in Manhattan with Brian and the girls, doing some NYC type of events such as a walking tour of Central Park, tea at the Plaza, and other fun things. 

Spring came and went and the school year ended.  Now it was time for the family trip to Italy.  My parents were taking the entire family to Italy in July. By this time my dad was out of rehab and had a slew of nurses and other professionals coming to the house to help in the recovery process.  It was decided by my parents that we should go without them as Dad was unable to travel.  We were all sad that they were unable to experience this adventure with us. So off we went. Europe here we come!

The Cohen's started their adventure in Rome with amazing tours of the city, and we loved our time there. 

We then headed off to Umbria for a couple of days, which was beautiful.  Then we rendezvoused with the rest of the Gray family in Florence.  From there we all went to Mestrino where we stayed at a wonderful bed and breakfast.  Venice was lots of fun, and the kids took gondaliering lessons. 

We saw Aida in Verona in an open coliseum at night, and had private cooking lessons for ourselves and separate lessons for the kids.  My parents were involved in helping to arrange all of those adventures.  We tasted 100 year old Balsamic vinegar in Modena.  

Sampled grappa in Bassano del Grappa.  Went to a huge amusement park by Lake Garda named appropriately enough, Gardaland. All of our time with the entire family was great fun, and we saw great sights. Then we headed off through the Italian lake region and the Dolomites to get to Austria. We were with the Farmer's at this point, the Dassatti's went south to Rome and Capri.  In Austria we went to a salt mine. 

We then headed to Salzburg where we went bike riding on the Sound of Music tour. From there we headed to Neuschwanstein Castle in Germany.  It is the castle which Walt Disney modeled his castle after.  

We said goodbye to the Farmers and we continued our adventure to the Rhine region of Germany. There we stayed in a real castle on the Rhine and toured the area.  Then to the Black Forest of Germany where we stayed at Titisee, it is known for their coo-coo clocks.  We also went to spas in the area.  Now off to our final destination, Switzerland, to spend some time with our friends the Hoares at their home in Bern.  We did so much in Switzerland: eating and visiting a chocolate factory, Gruyere cheese making, visiting Lake Luzern, up the Swiss Alps of Murren, to the top of the Schilthorn, and hiking.  All so much fun and beautiful.  

After a month of sightseeing and traveling it was time for all of us to come home. The entire trip was great and amazing! If curious/bored, we have a day by day blog of our trip that you can see by clicking on the following url. For most of the sights, pictures can't quite capture it or do it justice. But we tried anyway. Note; by clicking on the link below, the thumbnail photos will give you a sense of our adventure: https://bdarcohen.wordpress.com/   

August was fine until my Dad went to see if his heart could sustain the knee surgery.  I met my parents at Huntington Hospital where Dr. Patcha (the heart surgeon) checked his heart.  Based on what he saw he sent Dad to Manhasset hospital to have bypass heart surgery. We weren't expecting that.  After 6 hours of surgery the surgeon came out and told us he was unable to do the bypass because of the damage done from the heart attack in March. Again another shock and setback. The next day (less than 12 hours later) back to have stents put in.  My dad had 5 stents put in his heart. He made it home again in late August, where unfortunately he fell in his bathroom because he was hemorrhaging.  Now off to Stony Brook Hospital.  He was in really bad shape as a result of the fall, he suffered a broken neck and collar bone, and punctured his lung.  It was not good.  They were unable to control the internal bleeding so he had part of his colon removed. He now has a ileostomy bag.  He made it back home in September after rehab again.  He is on the mend now and is walking with a walker. He lost a lot of weight and looks great.

Rebecca is a junior in High School.  She is taking some challenging classes, cheerleading (which is two seasons long) and hanging out with her friends. She got her learner's permit for driving shortly after her birthday and is now taking lessons. Speaking of her birthday, we celebrated her Sweet 16 this past February in Manhattan. She and a dozen friends went shopping, went on a scavenger hunt, had dinner at Carmine's, and dessert at Sardi's. 

Amanda got a new car. Well, at least it is new for her. It is a candy apple red 2004 Jeep Cherokee, that she has nicknamed "the Red Robin". She did not go back to SUNY Farmingdale in September.  Instead, she is going to school to be a CNA (certified nursing assistant), which she really enjoys.  She is busy with school, volunteering at a local retirement home, and working at Old Navy.  

I continue to love my job as a speech therapist and Brian is happy and busy with his business (Landmark Wealth Management, LLC) helping people manage their finances as a financial planner and advisor. Buddy just turned 5 recently, and he continues to be the perfect dog for our family.

Upon reflection, this year has been very challenging. I miss Grandma Sue very much; her sudden departure leaves me sad. I feel blessed that we had so many wonderful memories with her. I have also spent a lot of time with my parents and I am fortunate to be able to do that.  I have taken away from this experience to love the people in my life, to spend time with them and not take them for granted.  In the end, it is the most important part of life.  Things and situations are constantly changing. However, if you have great friends and family, take the opportunity to enjoy them. That is LIFE and the key to HAPPINESS.  So to all of you, HAPPINESS and LOVE for 2016.  ENJOY LIFE!!