Eleanor Rothstein tells her family that she won’t get a hearing aid because, “They’re for old people.”
After all, she’s only 108.
When she was born on April 20, 1917, the U.S. had just entered World War I. That’s also the year when women won the right to vote in New York and the first Nobel Prizes were awarded. Baby Eleanor Scharf, her parents Sarah and Herman and her older brother Irv lived in South Philadelphia back then. While her memories are faint, a few things stand out.
“I had a nice childhood,” said Eleanor, who has round-the-clock care in the same Jenkintown apartment she’s lived in for some 30 years. “I didn’t have a bike, but my parents had a car. Then we had tough times and had to move.”
That’s when the Great Depression of 1929 hit, which greatly impacted Herman, a dress manufacturer, among many others. That didn’t keep them from regularly attending the local synagogue, though Eleanor didn’t go to Hebrew school or have a bat mitzvah.
A few years later, back at school, where, she concedes, “I didn’t study much,” her brother introduced her to his friend, Norman Rothstein.
That marked the beginning of a courtship that would last 84 years, 78 of them as a married couple. It would produce two children, three grandchildren, four great-grandchildren and, following Norman’s 2018 death, one great-great grandchild for Eleanor, with another one on the way. They already know it will be a girl, which makes it a remarkable five generations of women in the family.
“He didn’t have any money,” she said about the reason for the prolonged engagement. “I said to my mother, ‘I’m getting married.’ My mother said, ‘Where are you going to live? I said, ‘With you.’ She nearly dropped dead. I stayed a long time.”
Their marriage coincided with World War II, as Norman went off to serve in the Navy while Eleanor worked as a bank clerk. Reports of what was going on over in Europe were sketchy, though some of the horror stories about the Holocaust clearly registered.
“It was terrible,” she said when asked about the war. “I don’t remember much. I didn’t want to remember.”
But she certainly remembers her late husband, the man she calls “Poppy,” who was born in 1916.
“What I loved about Poppy was everything,” she said. “He was very good to me. Very kind.
I was very happy with him. I liked everything about him. I have wonderful memories with Poppy. I miss him because he was such a nice, wonderful man who took care of me.”
Norman spoke about what made their relationship work when both turned 100.
“Listening to each other and never getting mad,” he told the Philadelphia Jewish Exponent in 2017. “You can get irritated, but never get mad. Always smooth it out and forget about it. We have a great amount of love and respect for each other. Whatever happens, I always forget about it, and so does he within a few minutes because it’s done and over.”
The Rothsteins loved to travel. They went on all sorts of cruises and had a timeshare in Aruba for 20 years. Back home, they loved to hop the bus to Atlantic City and spend hours at the casinos.
“I liked Atlantic City,” she said, smiling. “It was exciting. I liked the one-arm bandits (slot machines). We gave them our share (of money).”
They were also huge sports fans, particularly of one team that’s had a bit of success lately.
“Go Eagles! Go Eagles,” Eleanor began cheering at the mere mention of the team she and her husband went to see religiously for decades. They had six season tickets from even before the Birds moved from Franklin Field to Veterans Stadium, bringing family and friends with them.
“My brother (Howard) and I would go with Nan and Pop to every home game,” said her granddaughter, Renee Rubenstein, whose mother, Nina Forman, lives just down the hall from Eleanor. “I used to come home from college to go to home games with them. They’d pick us up. My brother and I would sit in the back seat. They’d go to the deli, and we’d make sandwiches. And after the game, they’d drive us home.”
That feeling of family togetherness was also illustrated with the weekly Shabbas dinner, when Eleanor would make a brisket they still rave about.
“Friday night with the children at my house, we had a nice time together,” she said. “The kids slept over, and I loved that. That was wonderful having the family together. Family means everything to me.”
Jon Marks is a Philadelphia area freelance writer.