You’re just a button click away and I’d love
to hear from you.
About your world, your family, your joys and frustrations, growing up, growing older, even recipes– even though I stopped cooking–by request–years ago.
Goodbye until next time…
Hope your day turns outas well as I hope
(but doubt) mine will,
Gingy (Ilene)
Ilene,
Happy birthday.
Best,
Barbara Puff
You are still a young chick– I am older!!!
Ilene,
I love everything about this blog, and I hope to grow up to be you, loving life at 85. Many happy returns of the day!
Love
Terry
Ilene
Loved this blog and hope to see even more pictures of a life well lived. Experienced “Love, Loss and What I Wore” from the 92nd St Y – your insights are amazing and your life so interesting. Can’t wait for Covid 19 to pass and see you again. Enjoy many more birthdays.
Just when I thought I couldn’t “fangirl” you more! I love your insights.
You’re just FABULOUS.
You’ve given your blog the right name: Real Life is what you’ve shared with us–here and in your books. Can’t ask for more than that, so thank you for sharing.
You’re an inspiration–not because you’re so creative at age 85, but because you’re so creative. Period.
xxx
Dear Pen Pal,
I’ve been checking the mailbox each day….and here you are.
This is one of my favorite entries in your blog (too many good ones to have just one.) Love how reading each one takes me places in my heart I’d forgotten to look after. I wish I had the ability to cram so much life into just a few words the way you can.
Watched ‘Love, Loss…’ at the Y on YouTube and loved it more than ever. Shared it—everyone needs to have a little of you light in their lives.
You know I love you so. Happy Birthday dear friend.
I’m a Pastel artist and a fan of yours.
I recently saw the You Tube film of your work at the 92nd St Y performed by 5 remarkable actresses. I’ll probably watch it a few times more. Thank you for your humor and outrageous honesty. Even at 85 you’re beautiful you’ll be that way at 100. I wish you the best in everything you do…I love how brave you are…that’s what I’m getting about you, the courage to push on and look good at the same time.
What a beautiful life and how focussed you are to pick 8 photos that tell it. Feel like I’m getting to know you by your blog. You’re so creative. Love you.
XX
My dear Gingy, It has been way too long since I last saw you. I adored seeing your photos. Several of them made me cry from poking holes into my own past! Of course we can’t be this old (I’m 88+) without sharing so many similarities! but your fetching art work that accompanies all this material so delightfully emphasizes it all. I loved seeing the photo of the wondrous musician, Stanley, too. My marriages equal yours in number, and I finally got it right by the 3rd attempt when my ‘Great Dane’ entered the picture some 40 years after we had first met, and he took me back off to Copenhagen. His only fault showed when he surrendered to his physical weaknesses and left me by actually dying. Poor me, I’m still stunned by that untoward move of his but my 3 kids are staunch supporters and we continue sharing hikes/books/music/music/music. There’s something else???? Oh Yes! There is! It’s YOUR book, “Love, Loss and What I Wore” which I have shared with so many friends literally the world over! Don’t ever stop writing! I send sweet thoughts to you, Gingy,
Joyce
I can’t remember how I found your book LOVE, LOSS, AND WHAT I WORE, but when I began to read it, I thought, “Here is a woman after my heart. Clothes and special memories automically go together!” I was very close to my Aunt Opal who married my mother’s brother Jack when she was 19; she passed away in 2017 at the age of 97. When I visited her, she and I would watch DANCING WITH THE STARS. Usually, THE BACHELOR or THE BACHELORETTE would follow, and I would be almost embarrassed at the show’s content until I realized that Opal was reading her Sunday School lesson or working on a word-search puzzle. She also spent the early part of an evening talking on the phone with her two sisters and several close friends. About two hours later, the phone would begin to ring again, and it was the same women calling her to wish her a good night’s sleep and to tell her that they loved her. Such sweet ladies! I’m 71, and I hope you, Gingy, those who read this blog, and I live to be the happy and independent 97 of my Aunt Opal.
I hope this pandemic continues to leave you & your loved ones OUT.
Your blog is a wonderful diversion for me.
Indeed your story line seems complete in those few photos. It was fun for me to see Blossom.
Did you want your children so close or was that beyond your control?
You are the best storyteller and your charisma beats all of us.
Warmest Regards.
Susan at Glenwild Lake
Dear I.B.,
This blog posted just as I completed an ancestral project about my family and my husband’s family. After dealing with a lot of dead people, I decided it was time to focus on the living. It was time to let my children know that I definitely had a “life before kids” and I had a “best friend”, who I just spoke to today on her seventy-fifth birthday. It was my good fortune that both my mother and my mother-in-law saved family photos, awards, letters, cards and newspaper articles
commemorating special events. I was able to use all of these items as I prepared a special journal for my children. The book covers my life and my husband’s life from our births through our retirement here in Virginia. We each wrote a letter to our kids about our lives growing up in Jersey City, New Jersey. Pictures highlighted our school years, graduations, employment, awards, our wedding, the birth of our children, family gatherings and our family pets. Yes…..the importance of pictures and best friends. I encourage everyone to search for pictures and memorabilia that can be passed on to your children. Talk to them about your life and the things that are/were important to you. No one else can tell your story the way you can.
Love,
Joyce
Dear Gingi, One of the biggest thrills of my life was meeting you — and having the chance to interview you. I had loved your books for years and I loved the play too. I am always so moved at the way you share your life with us. This time I have to correct you on one point. There are some of your admirers, like me, who are older than you are, but not wiser! Sally
I love that you are you…
I love that you are 85 and that I am joining you soon.
Im so grateful that you are here.
I hate that Dora is not here that she is not where I always see her in my mind.
thoughts of her are so often frequent and associated with everything I do and then I realize again that she is not there in her glass room at her computer or in her kitchen with the blue plates.
The picture of your mother makes me feel like sobbing when I realize the tragedy that you were deprived of her so young…
She looks deeply beautiful in the photo
I loved seeing so many pictures of you that I have never seen and remembering you
at so many different stages.
Very moving and poignant life picture story of someone I love deeply
gay
I have known you for so long through 2 husbands! Rachel and I have loved your books. At 85 you are still so dynamic and creative. You are amazing.
Great pictures. And a rich story. So much experience and wisdom in your eyes in photo #10. No wonder. No surprise.
Question about photo #2: Is it by the sea? What’s printed on that building behind you all? At first I thought the last word was “SOX” (as in the Boston Red Sox); but maybe it’s actually “SON” or “SUN”… okay, yes, I’m obsessing…
#8 makes me sad. But happy too because she looks so happy. She loved you two so much. Happy 85! xxoo
Ginny, This blog was the most heartwarming, meaningful one yet. I am now challenged to find 6 pictures that tell my life’s story. And I plan to do just that. I am sorry to hear about Dora’s passing. I spent time with her at the reception after Isabelle’s funeral and I learned about her important place in your life. You are an inspiration!
This is my favorite blog so far!
Ilene,
You are not just “entitled”. You are deserving of a blog in pictures and of anything else you want.
You are so, so BEAUTIFUL. Inside and out.
I love this blog, I love you and I love that we are friends.
Thank you again.
Nancy
Ilene,
It is amazing how much joy and pain can be packed into photographs. Thank you for this blog. I too have had three husbands, although I left the third behind and am happily living in sin in Florida. (Ask Maggie and Ed about husband #3.)
Be well. Be safe. Enjoy being 85. I am a mere babe at 72.
Cindy
Wonderful Gingy!
Thanx for sharing your words & photos. Life has twists & turns & ups & downs n lots of stories. Glad you ended up with someone who loves you for you. Love the ones your with. I would know you anywhere with those beautiful eyes n friendly smile.
Love you back!
My sunflowers in the garden are popping out now.
Another beautiful day!
Wonderful! Didn’t know Isabelle was named after your mom. Now I have to go look for 6 pictures…