Born above her parents' grocery in Queens, she was the youngest of four. She met my father at twenty, married at twenty-one, and before she was thirty, had three children.
In her early married life, she lived in the same building as her in-laws, in the Bronx. Despite their being orthodox and her irreligious, they developed a mutually loving and respectful relationship. After eleven years, they moved to Closter, New Jersey, and she immersed herself in suburban life, while creating an orderly and beautiful home.
In her forties, she returned to college, then took a job at United Airlines. Her benefits enabled my parents to travel the world in their fifties and sixties. When my father developed Parkinson's, they retired to Boca Raton. After she was widowed at 74, she remained socially active in Florida, then decided in her late 80s to move north, to be close to her growing family, choosing to live at Orchard Cove in Canton, Massachusetts.
Her final chapter was filled with book groups, mahjong, canasta, new friends, and get-togethers with family. She remained lucid. A lifelong smoker, she was diagnosed with lung cancer in August, 2022. Always a realist, she faced it with equanimity, decided on no medical interventions, and died peacefully surrounded by family.
Florence is survived by her children, Marsha (Robert Greenstein), Sharon Graubard, and Jeffrey Graubard; by her grandchildren, Emily (James Munro), Daniel (Ema Zubovic), Adam (Jennifer Schlossman Greenstein), and Ethan Graubard; and by her great-grandchildren, Asher, Finn, Sasha, Nelle, and Lukas.
