Tribute to my niece and nephew
Sherri Lee Seidner 1970-1974
Scott Greenstein 1970-1996
I was also close to my sisters at the time, but they thought that I was in outer space somewhere. Linda had moved out of our house early with her boyfriend Pete and my Mom and Aunts hated Pete for taking Linda away. But they got married and
Clockwise: Sherri, Mom, Dad, Marcelle, Stacey and Scott
I saw them regularly in Hackensack. They had a daughter named Sherri Lee
Seidner who was adorable. But Sherri had a rare genetic Jewish disease that they traced a gene back to a tribe where two people had inbred. The disease is called Familial dysautonomia and it effected Sherri’ s autonomic nervous system. This created an incredible burden on Linda and Pete as it was very difficult for everyone. Because Sherri would hold her breath and pass out without even knowing it, my sister had difficulty in getting anyone to help babysit so I stepped in. I was dating a nurse at the time and we regularly baby sat Sherri so Pete and Linda would be able to get out and about.
Poor little Sherri died in the car while Linda was taking her to the hospital to seek treatment and we were all devastated. I was in Alaska at the time and I could not return for the funeral but I remember vividly that when I heard the news I jumped onto my motorcycle and rode it to the top of the biggest mountain I could find and sat there and cried for hours. I loved Sherri and it was awful to hear that she was not with us anymore. Linda and Pete had two more girls, Nicole and Meghann and I can say that they are beautiful girls. Although I had spent some time with them when I returned from college, I wasn’ t able to see them enough when they were very young.
BARRY STEVEN EPSTEIN- PhotoAutobiography DRAFT 17 of 156