Matthew Alperin

It’s not every day that you hear a child say their parent is their best friend, but our dad was. Matty, as many would call him, was the sweetest, kindest, most caring man you could have ever met. He was an amazing father, husband, son/son-in-law, brother/brother-in-law, uncle, nephew, cousin, and friend (and grandpaw to his cat grandson, Pumpkin). He went through so much in his life, yet he always led with a smile and an open heart.

On December 13, 1954, Connie and Edward welcomed our father, Matthew Alperin, into the world. He was born in Upstate New York before moving to Brooklyn, and then Elmont, Long Island. He was the oldest of his two siblings, Jeff and Linda. For the last 28 years, he lived in Queens with our mom, Alice, and us (Amanda and Marissa).

Our dad loved to make people laugh. Funny enough (no pun intended), he was voted class jokester in high school. He was always his genuine self, a quality that we loved most. He never cared what people thought about him. He was blunt, but in all the best ways. Never afraid to just speak his mind. He was rawly honest.

A true sports fan at heart, our dad collected baseball and football cards for decades. His collections were always extremely well-organized, each card being placed in numerical order with plastic covers on them. And you’d never see him without one of his Mets, Yankees, or Steelers jackets! We’ll always remember him falling asleep while watching a game and somehow still being aware of the score and stats; even in sleep, he never missed a beat. His memory and knowledge of sports history, and history in general, was beyond comprehension; he constantly surprised us with dates and random facts. With music too! You could always count on him to be able to tell you the name of a classic rock song/artist playing on the radio, as well as what year the songs were released. Our dad had so many quirks and talents that made an already special man that much more special. We’re going to forever miss all his little surprises.

Our dad was an extraordinarily hard worker; a hustler. Growing up, he worked two to three jobs at a time to support our family, so our mom could stay home with us. We remember going with him to his job at Newsday on weekend mornings. We’d help add the inserts in the newspapers and, afterwards, he’d take us to the park and for hot chocolate. He was a supermarket manager for several years, usually working through the night for 7 days a week. We always missed him, but we knew he wanted to give us everything we ever needed and dreamed of. And somehow, he never missed the important moments. He showed up to every performance and he’d be the first person to shed a tear when we sang.

As horrible as the last few weeks have been, we were able to witness just how much love our parents had, and still have, for each other. Our parents met right here in Forest Hills at a Jewish dance. Our mom was just about to leave the dance with her best friend, Fran, so she decided to go to the bathroom before departing. When she got out of the bathroom, our dad was standing there waiting for her. He asked her to go to the Blue Bay Diner so they could get to know each other better. Our mom said “yes” and that her and Fran would meet him and his friends there. Although the ride should have been about 20 minutes, our mom was about an hour late. Our dad, determined to know her, waited at the diner for our mom to arrive. When she got there, he was so relieved to see that he wasn’t stood up. Our mom replied that “she’d never do that” and the rest was history. From there, our dad took our mom out 5 times a week, every week until he proposed. With each date, he’d bring her a single, long-stem rose with baby’s breath. It wasn’t until our mom told him that she had a fear of thorns from falling in a throne bush as a kid that he stopped bringing them. They got engaged after 4 months, on Thanksgiving, and this upcoming September would have been their 40th anniversary. Our parents tried having kids for around 8 years, and after having a terrible miscarriage, we were born 16 months apart. He loved all three of his girls so much. In our dad’s last moments, he made sure to give our mom a kiss. That kind of love is something we will hold onto forever.

Although his time on this earth was shorter than we would have liked, we cherish every moment we had together. There are so many wonderful memories we can look back on to comfort our grieving hearts. We would choose our dad again and again in every lifetime.

Family and friends are invited to attend the memorial service to celebrate and honor our dad’s life on Saturday, April 19, 2025, starting at 2:00 PM ET. We encourage those who are attending to wear lavender/purple, as that was our dad’s favorite color.

In lieu of flowers, those who wish to honor Matty’s memory may consider a donation to our parents’ GoFundMe (https://gofund.me/ff68ba26).