Edna M Flick

Edna lived half her life in the Bronx (40 yrs.) and a little more than half her life in Montrose, N.Y. (46 Yrs.) Edna was born in the Bronx on Andrews Avenue near University Place for a short time until her family moved to Hull Avenue, between Gun Hill Road and E. 211th Street where she grew up going to St. Brendan’s Catholic School and then St. Barnabas High School, met her husband, got married and raised her own family. Edna met Joe, as he tells it, she was a pretty girl who used to ride her bike around the neighborhood and would pass by the place he worked when she would visit her very long-time friend Terry. She caught his eye and he started to flirt and pursue her. She loved to dance and they would go to all the school dances and as a real treat they loved going to Glen Island Casino and dance to the Glen Miller Band. It wasn’t long that Joe swept Edna off her feet and they ran away together and eloped in May of 1956, they were just teenagers. Three months later they had a church wedding with their families in August of 1956 and very shortly after, started their family on Hull Avenue. When her children began going to school at St. Ann’s on Bainbridge Avenue, Edna got involved in the school where and when she could. She joined the Rosary Society, she volunteered teaching gym classes at St. Ann’s and she also coached the 4th grade girl’s basketball CYO team. At the end of a long week Joe & Edna loved going out on Friday nights to their favorite Italian Restaurant, “Jimmy’s”, on the corner of Perry Avenue & Gun Hill Road for a nice dinner and a glass of wine. When her children were all in or graduating from high school, Edna went back to school. She entered the Wood Secretarial & Business School, graduated with the class of 1979 and earned her Associates Degree. It was also around this time that Edna and her family, including her parents moved up to 18 Sunset Avenue, Montrose, NY. She commuted via the Metro North to her first job after graduating the Wood School at International Paper on 42nd Street in NY, where she started as a secretary. Later, International Paper moved to Connecticut and Edna began making the drive back and forth from Montrose to Connecticut. Shortly after, International Paper was bought out by and changed to Chrysler Capital where Edna worked herself up to being a Human Resource Manager. After retirement from the corporate world, Edna trained with and worked for Estee Lauder at the make-up counter, for a period of time. After leaving Estee Lauder she went to work as a sales clerk for T. J. Max. Edna & Joe also began investing in gifts and collectibles and traveled the Flea Market circuit selling these gifts and collectibles. During this time, they decided to open up a gift store instead of traveling from Flea Market to Flea Market. Edna became the owner and operator of a small gift shop called “Pleasantly Surprised”, selling cards, gifts and collectibles on Kings Ferry Road, in the town of Montrose, NY, for about 5 years.

I think it is safe to say that Pleasantly Surprised became one of her most prized possessions. She was very proud of her little store. She loved meeting and talking with the customers and making the little children happy when they came in to buy the ever-popular beanie babies.

Edna was always an avid reader. She read many biographies, novels and mysteries over the years but in her later years she loved reading James Patterson and John Grisham books. All her life, Edna loved to go to the beach and go swimming from a very early age, when she went to visit her cousins in Long Beach, N.Y., and she also frequented a number of local beaches growing up like Orchard Beach, Jones Beach, Riis Park Beach, and Rockaway, where she & Joe would rent a bungalow in the summer with their young family, Silvan Lake, and Greenwood Lake. In later years, she loved going to Hutchinson Island Beach off the coast of Florida where she would walk the beach and look for the sea turtle nests. Edna loved living in Montrose. She was very happy when we all moved to Westchester and to have a house with a front and back yard. She loved being surrounded by nature and to be able to plant flowers and put up bird nests and watch the wild life. She loved to watch and listen to the birds, watch the local deer roam through her yard and even sleep under the trees in the backyard where she would be known to buy many apples to throw to them, so much so, it became a ritual and the deer came looking for their treat every evening. She also got a kick out of watching the flocks of wild turkeys walk across the road, blocking traffic from time to time and also wander into her yard to play follow the leader and run circles in the back yard. It is was here she was most happy. Edna was a huge animal lover her entire life. She loved it when her father would take her as a young girl to the horse stables in Van Cortland Park, where she rode the horses. She always had a dog since she was a young girl and was never without a pet dog until her last day. Edna always adopted or rescued her pet dogs from a shelter or even the street, like the infamous Charlie Brown and Rodney the cat. Edna owned and cared for about 10 dogs over her lifetime. There was Lucky, Suzie, Bambi, Charlie Brown, Rodney the cat, Ginger, a white shepherd for a short time that my brother Dennis brought home, Clancy, Alfie, Rufus, and Benji who is still being cared for by Joe, but her love for animals didn’t stop at dogs and cats, we had a hamster, gerbils, turtles, fish, and even a snake and a huge turtle that was kept in the bathtub for a while courtesy of our brother Dennis, and Edna loved and cared for them all.

Edna is survived by her husband Joseph T. Flick for over 70 years; her children Madeline T. Flick-DeBonis and Joseph B. Flick; her grandchildren Jennifer T. DeBonis, Joseph T. Flick (Kelly), John K. Flick (Samantha) and Paul L. DeBonis (Maria); her great grandchildren Landyn Flick, Austyn Flick, Nicolina DeBonis, Luciano P. DeBonis and Daniel Flick and Benji her last dog.

She was predeceased by her son Dennis E. Flick.

Visitation is scheduled for Sunday, September 20th from 4-8pm at Edward F Carter Funeral Home, 170 Kings Ferry Road, Montrose, NY 10548. A Mass of Christian Burial is scheduled for Monday, September 21st at 10:30am at St. Christopher’s Church, 3094 Albany Post Rd, Buchanan, NY 10511. Interment to follow at Gate of Heaven Cemetery, 10 W. Stevens Avenue, Hawthorne, NY 10532.

In lieu of flowers, contributions can be made in her honor to Friends of Green Chimneys-Playground, 400 Doansburg Road, Brewster, NY 10509, Best Friends-Animal Society, 5001 Angel Canyon Rd, Kanab, UT 84741-5000 or St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, 501 St. Jude Place, Memphis, TN 38105.