Cecilia K. Karol

Cecilia Karol, born, depending on her mood either October 28, 1924, January 28, 1926, or October 28, 1926, died August 19, 2026.

As a 4-year-old in Ukraine, Cecilia remembers her father being released from jail with his fingernails torn out for the crime of telling a joke about Stalin, to his best friend. No record exists of that joke, but it must have been a real doozy. That was enough for Cecilia's mom to move halfway around the world to Uruguay. They arrived penniless and not knowing Spanish, but with a fierce determination to succeed in a country that offered free education, Cecilia became known as "The Bookeater" and excelled. With a photographic memory, she was able to tell teachers what paragraph on what page supported her position.

Cecilia developed a love of American movies, and the Saturday matinee was mandatory. Given money for Saturday lunch with her friends, Cecilia would instead use the money to buy a movie ticket and chocolates. Her insatiable sweet tooth, no doubt fueled by living down the block from a Halvah candy manufacturing plant, involved her trying multiple times to get a tonsillectomy, because the patient would be given ice cream in recovery. She spent her summers as the first aid assistant at the beach; she preferred Playa Brava, with waves, to Playa Mansa, without waves.

Cecilia became a psychiatrist in Uruguay, and offered a chance to do a residency in New York, she took it. She travelled with her mother by cruise ship, where the Chief Purser Morris would invite Cecilia and her mother to eat at the Captain's Table, of course on days when he didn't instead have complementary lobster and caviar waiting in their room. But it was Morris' skilled consistent rigging of Bingo in Cecilia's mother favor, that he swears fooled everyone, that sealed the mother's blessing to a wedding within 5 days of debarking in New York. Morris and Cecilia were married 66 years.

Despite being one of only a tiny fraction of women doctors in residency, Cecilia eventually held many senior positions in the New Jersey Psychoanalytic Society, including President. Cecilia had a passion for helping people navigate very difficult times, especially adolescent girls. Cecilia believed that when you retire, you die, and she insisted on working into her late 80's, picking temp jobs in parts of the country where she wanted to avoid the New Jersey winters, although it couldn't be "in the middle of nowhere" - it had to be near a beach and large movie theater.

It was only Alzheimer’s that forced her to retire. Having beaten three serious cancers, Cecilia despaired that her greatest childhood strength, a photographic memory that helped her thrive across continents, was now her worst enemy. She was thrilled that just about every day at Memory Care had an afternoon movie, which she always guessed as being either Gone with the Wind or Casablanca, and then singing aloud "You must remember this, a kiss is just a kiss, a sigh is just a sigh, the fundamental things of life, as time goes by..."

Cecilia is predeceased by her husband Morris, and survived by her only child Peter, a daughter in law Elissa, and two granddaughters.

A Committal Service will be held at Beth David Cemetery, 300 Elmont Rd, Elmont, NY 11003, US, on August 23, 2026, from 11:15 am to 12:15 pm.