Norma Ritter

 Norma was one of the founders of the email list that I have been on since 1995.  The email list is called Power Surge PS for short.

This was the first in person PS meeting in 1997

Norma Marian Ritter, 78, of Guilderland, New York passed away on September 1, 2023, surrounded by her family. Norma (nee Eglash Woolf) was born on the 9th of June, 1945, in Matlock, England. She is predeceased by her parents Victor Woolf and Minnie Eglash Woolf; her sister Eileen Woolf; and her granddaughter Sarah Tzipporah Otter.

Norma grew up in the East End of London, England. She had a strong connection to her Jewish identity, and after graduating from school she spent a year living on a kibbutz in Israel. Norma loved working with children of all ages. During her long career as an educator, she was employed as a Youth Counselor, a Hebrew School Teacher, and a Youth Group Advisor.

Norma’s true passion was supporting and advocating for mothers and babies. She was asked by Chemung County (NY) Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) to create and implement a breastfeeding education program to support young mothers and their babies. The program was so successful that counties all over New York State adopted the curriculum she helped create.

At the age of 50, after 20 years of volunteering as a La Leche League Leader, she started a new career as an International Board Certified Lactation Consultant (IBCLC). In 2010, Norma went on to not only become one of the founding members of Breastfeeding USA, but also the author of the training manual for their Counselors. Throughout her lifetime, Norma helped, supported, and empowered thousands of mothers to successfully breastfeed their children.

Norma is lovingly survived by her husband of nearly 50 years, Glenn Ritter, as well as her 3 children: Dan (Elizabeth Lear), and their children Zachariah Elijah and Ephraim Avdan; Abigail (Joe Otter), and their children Jonah Avigdor, Rachel Lucia, and Isaac Naftali; and Chana Maya (Jeff Shein) and their children Chava Rachel, Ami Yehuda, Kayla, and Ethan.

Norma will be laid to rest at Congregation Gates of Heaven Cemetery in Schenectady, New York, at 1pm on the 5th of September, 2023. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the Animal Protective Foundation in Glenville, NY; or Breastfeeding USA at breastfeedingusa.org

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Something copied from Facebook

 

Follies Of God

“I have been increasingly conscious, for the last 10 years or so, of deaths among my contemporaries. My generation is on the way out, and each death I have felt as an abruption, a tearing away of part of myself. There will be no one like us when we are gone, but then there is no one like anyone else, ever. When people die, they cannot be replaced. They leave holes that cannot be filled, for it is the fate — the genetic and neural fate — of every human being to be a unique individual, to find his own path, to live his own life, to die his own death.

“I cannot pretend I am without fear. But my predominant feeling is one of gratitude. I have loved and been loved; I have been given much and I have given something in return; I have read and traveled and thought and written. I have had an intercourse with the world, the special intercourse of writers and readers.

Above all, I have been a sentient being, a thinking animal, on this beautiful planet, and that in itself has been an enormous privilege and adventure.”—Oliver Sacks. (Photograph by Bill Hayes)

As we all face the losses and the gifts.

Some sweet news- it's Darcy's birthday

I am sure I write pretty much the same stuff every year.  But if I do it is because it is all true!

Darcy was born on August 31, 1984 in Tromsø Norway.  He was a big boy weighing in at 9lb 9oz.   

He was a sweet, happy baby and a funny comical and mischievous little boy .  

He has grown into a wonderful and loving man and I cannot believe how lucky I am to be his mother!

 

 

 

  He is all grown up now

when someone dies you get on the phone

 I learned yesterday that my cousin's 52 year old son, Torrey had died.   There were comments on his Facebook page saying what a great guy he was and R.I.P.  So I googled his name and found this:

 

 

TORREY TUFT

Case #: 2023-11491

Place Of Death: Residence

December 12, 1970 - August 29, 2023

(52)

I am sure I have met Torrey at various family gatherings.  Most recently at a Thompsen family reunion in McMinneville, Oregon in 2016.  

 

This was taken at the same reunion.  The color of the shirt designates which of the five Thompsen brothers you descended from.  These are all great grandchildren of the original Thompsens who came over from Norway

 

 

 Torrey is the man in the very front of the picture.    The other people in the picture are his family- Aunts and Uncles and cousins.  His mother, Cassy, is my first cousin.

After I read the comments on Facebook and found the LA Medical Examiner's report, what did I do?   I got on the phone.  I called my sister.   She saw the information and contacted another cousin to see if she knew what happened.  That cousin called Torrey's mom on the phone and relayed the information to my sister and I.

I posted the sad information on an email group that I call "Thompsen cousins".   And, later in the evening another cousin called me.  He said he had called Cassie (Torrey's mom) to learn what happened.

Before we had the internet and email and Facebook, we relied on the phone to convey news both sad and happy.

When we lived overseas, before internet and when overseas phone calls were difficult to make and expensive, we learned about the death of a family member by mail.  When my high-school friend Andy died, I got a letter from her boyfriend letting me know.  I held that letter and was unable to say what had happened -I cried.

That's how I learned about the deaths of some of my grandparents.   It's how I got the message to my family that I had lost my first baby.

There's just something very primal I think about the need to share powerful information with the people who know you and know what and whom you are referring to.

Life is good.  Life is hard. Life can be so very hard.  That's what being a person is.

updated 9/1/2023:

(L.A.) Torrey Tuft, 52, Died at a Residence

Deaths, Local natural death 0 

Case Number: 2023-11491

Los Angeles County is reporting the death of a 52-year-old White/Caucasian male that occurred at a residence.

The coroner’s office has identified the man as Torrey Tuft.

Manner of Death: Natural

Cause of Death A: Sudden Cardiac Death

Cause of Death B: Atherosclerotic Cardiovascular Disease

RIP TORREY TUFT (December 12, 1970 – August 29, 2023)

Formal pronouncement of death was made on Tuesday at 7:09 p.m.

We do not know if the decedent was injected with synthetic mRNA.