My Father’s Face Time

 

CORDELIA “How does the king?

DOCTOR Madam, sleeps still.

CORDELIA O you kind gods,

Cure this great breach in his abused nature!

The untuned and jarring senses, O, wind up

Of this child-changed father!”

 

My father, after suggesting I do such-and-such with  my life, would add: “Did I ever steer you wrong?” 

Well, no.

Because he knew how to live. And he knew how to die. He ate his last chocolate ice cream on a Tuesday and died on a Thursday, at home, in his sleep at 95.

Good Grief.

“A good name endures,” said the rabbi quoting from the Book of Job at the funeral.

My father’s name was Norman H. and he was born in 1919.

1919.

Good grief, that’s  a lot of memories. So many memories of a beautiful man.

We’ve come a long way from ragtime jazz to spaceships landing on comets and I think the only thing he was afraid of in all those years was: me sitting on his eyeglasses. 

I was always afraid he would drive off the road one night. (The fears for our fathers.) 

But he never did. He was from the Greatest Generation! (Am I my father’s son or what? At his funeral I wore his black suit and red tie.)

Breathe. Let us all take a deep breath. There should be no tension concerning my father, for he was the least tense guy I ever knew. The most relaxed. And the greatest too.

How many of you were at his ninety-fifth birthday three months ago? Raise of hands…

Another lovely memory for all of us. After that ice cream social my mother put together for him in August, she asked how he liked the day. He called it, “the greatest thing ever.” 

Here is some of an obituary his four children wrote and sent to the Detroit newspapers:

Norman H. Rosenfeld, 95, of Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, died after sunset on 13 November 2014. A Funeral was held at The Davidson/Hermelin Chapel at Clover Hill Park on Monday, 17 November 2014 at 11:00 AM .  Rabbi Harold Loss and Cantorial Soloist Neil Michaels officiated. 

Interment at Clover Hill Park Cemetery. Norman was the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Sibley’s Shoes, founded by Norman’s father, Harry, in 1920. Originally called Rosenfelds Bootery on Twelfth Street, Harry moved the shop to the corner of Sibley and Woodward (the soon to be location of the first M-1 Rail station north of I-75) in the early 1920’s. In 1932, the flagship store was moved to the corner of Woodward Avenue and Montcalm in the Fox Building. By 1952, Sibley’s moved its corporate offices to the Fox Building and remained there until 1977 when they relocated to the Renaissance Center. Norman and his brother Aaron “Rocky” Ross had assumed ownership upon Harry’s death in 1973 and led the well known retail footwear chain, expanding to more than 40 Sibley’s and Ms. Sibley’s stores with over 300 dedicated employees throughout Michigan and Ohio. Born to Ethel Rosenfeld in Harper Hospital, Norman grew up on Nevada Street and Whitmore Lane, graduating from Northern High School where he played three sports for the Eskimos. Attending the University of Michigan in 1937, he studied English, Drama, and Broadcasting, participated in many theatre productions and played football, where he would later joke, he was “often run over by Tom Harmon” in practice. He graduated in 1941 and after a year living in a Chicago YMCA working for the Florsheim Shoe Company, Norman enlisted in the United States Army in May 1942, attending OCS and eventually achieving First Lieutenant in the 776th Battalion Anti-Aircraft battery of Patton’s Third Army in the European Theatre. After considering law and business schools before the war, after returning from Europe in late 1945, he decided to help his father at Sibley’s Shoes. In 1949 he married Dulcie Beth Krasnick, who survives him, after 65 years of wedded bliss. They raised four children on Steel Street north of Outer Drive and later in a home on Hamilton Road across from Palmer Park. In 1986, “Dulcie and Norm” became one of the original tenants at the Riverfront Apartments complex, where they constantly entertained family and served as hosts for numerous community causes.  A lifelong sports enthusiast, Norman was a Detroit Lions season-ticket holder beginning in 1951, even traveling to Cleveland and Chicago for rivalry games in that era. The Rosenfelds also had season tickets for Michigan football games for over fifty years. Sibley’s sponsored the Detroit Tigers on WJR radio. Before every game, Hall of Fame announcer Ernie Harwell gave a pair of “Florsheim shoes from Sibley’s, Michigan’s largest Florsheim dealer!” to each baseball figure he interviewed.

Family members include: Beloved husband of 65 1/2 years of Dulcie Rosenfeld. Cherished father of Jill (Evan) Stone, Nancy Rosenfeld, Henry “Hank” Rosenfeld and James (Peggy) Rosenfeld. Loving Grandpa of Elizabeth “Liz” (Jud) Nirenberg, Adam Stone, Benjamin Rosenfeld and Harrison Rosenfeld. Great Grandfather of Emmet Nirenberg. Brother of the late Aaron “Rocky” Ross. Brother-in-law of William and Marjorie Krasnick. Devoted son of the late Harry and the late Ethel Rosenfeld. Son-in-law of the late John and the late Adeline Krasnick. Also survived by many loving nieces, nephews, cousins, his devoted friend and caregiver, Bob Mielen, a world of friends and his beloved employees and staff of over 55 years of Sibley’s Shoes. Lifelong Detroiter…and I have so much more to say.