Snowbirds

By Cora Hoberman

THIS STORY SPANS DECADES. It begins in the 1960's and ends in present time. It's the story of the Sussman family who live on Long Island, New York. They have two daughters, Sandra and Debbi.
All is not idyllic in their early years. A dramatic happening changes the family forever.
Later in their lives Lena and Harold Sussman become Snow Birds who spend many happy winters in their Florida condo.
The reader travels along with the family through time and place, marveling at the unexpected events which occur during their exciting journey.

• Language: English
• Publisher: iUniverse
• Release date: Jun 10, 2010
• ISBN: 9781450234573

Cora Hoberman

Cora Hoberman is a retired Licensed Clinical Social Worker. After retiring she returned to her love of writing. This is her first book. For several years she and her husband were Snowbirds. The idea for this story germinated on one of their return trips from Florida while her husband was doing the driving. Cora currently resides in New York City.

Book preview

Snowbirds

Copyright © 2010 Cora Hoberman

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by

any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying,

recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system

without the written permission of the publisher except in the case

of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, names, incidents,

organizations, and dialogue in this novel are either the products

of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.

iUniverse books may be ordered through booksellers or by contacting:

iUniverse

1663 Liberty Drive

Bloomington, IN 47403

www.iuniverse.com

1-800-Authors (1-800-288-4677)

Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any Web addresses or

links contained in this book may have changed since publication and

may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those

of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher,

and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

ISBN: 978-1-4502-3456-6 (pbk)

ISBN: 978-1-4502-3457-3 (ebk)

iUniverse rev. date: 6/7/2010

CONTENTS

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

Chapter 18

Chapter 19

Chapter 20

Chapter 21

Chapter 22

Chapter 23

Chapter 24

Chapter 25

Chapter 26

Chapter 27

Chapter 28

Chapter 29

Dedicated to Ira Hoberman.

Acknowlegements

This book would not have been possible without the guidance and encouragement of the wonderful women in my writing group. Helen Spataro, Kathleen Young and Carol Strub.

Special thanks goes to Helen for her time and effort in tirelessly editing the manuscript.

Thank you to Brian Hoberman for his generous offer to format the book.

Brian also provided the beautiful photograph used for the book cover.

Chapter 1 

LYNBROOK, NEW YORK

Dreams tormented her. Lena clutched at the hand of the flaxen haired child. A silent scream escaped her lips as the tiny fingers slipped away from her grasp. She awoke from the familiar harrowing dream, still anguished over the girl lost so many years ago.

Lena turned over in her bed and tried to go back to sleep. The sound of the radio startled her back to reality a short time later. On this chilly morning in early December she remained warm beneath her down quilt listening to the newscaster.

U.S. soldiers were killed in Iraq yesterday. There was a hit and run driver in Queens late last night.

Lena mumbled to herself, Enough bad news as she pushed the covers aside, rose from bed, slipped into her light blue terry robe and put on her furry slippers. Next to her in bed her husband Harold, pushed his pillows behind his head and sat up just enough to grab the remote from his nightstand and turn the TV on to the weather channel.

Do you want me to shut off the radio? Lena said.

No, he said, I want to hear the traffic report.

How can you do both listen to the radio and watch the television?

I’m multitasking Lena.

OK suit yourself, she retorted. Well, I’m going downstairs to multitask up some breakfast.

Don’t make me any coffee today Leen. Harold replied, knowing that at the ripe old age of 70, the more fluids he consumed this morning the more pit stops he would have to make once they got out on the road.

Lena and Harold were snowbirds and today was the day they were to take their annual voyage to Florida. After a breakfast of oatmeal and tea, Lena walked through the living room to take a look out the front door and see if there was any ice covering the front steps. The night had been quite cold and she was afraid that there might be some remaining frost. When everything seemed okay, Lena proceeded upstairs to get dressed and finish packing her overnight bag for the trip. Most everything else had already been packed the night before. She added her overnight bag to the accumulation of suitcases, assorted sized boxes, and variety of shopping bags. There were large paper ones with handles from Macy’s and even larger plastic ones from Target. All piled up in the front hall it looked as if someone had tried to replicate a tumbling pyramid. Harold, having finished getting the weather and traffic reports, came downstairs for a bowl of his favorite mix of cold cereals.

Chapter 2 

FLORENCE, SOUTH CAROLINA

Each year on their trip to Florida Harold and Lena would stay at the same motel that they had been going to for many years. It was clean and quiet, with moderate prices and free serve-yourself breakfast. After a good night sleep they made their way to the Breakfast Room attached to the motel lobby.

Harold took a table near the large screened TV while Lena popped some English muffins in the toaster and poured two servings of orange juice into the plastic cups. She reached into her purse and extracted four pills. Pushing two of them toward him she said, Here is your medicine, Harold.

When a young family sat down at the table beside them Lena immediately noticed the little girl with the blond banana curls.

Mommy mommy I want a waffle! said the little girl.

Mom replied, Sure honey I’ll make one for you and you can decide what kind of syrup you want on it.

She pointed and said That one.

Lena inquired, How old are you sweetie?

Holding up the equivalent amount of fingers the girl proudly said, Three.

Where you headed? Harold asked the girls parents.

Oh we’re on our way to visit my parents, they live near Kissimmee.

I guess you’ll be going to Disney, won’t you?

"Of course! The father replied.

Harold said, Have a great time and say hello to Mickey. as they headed back to their room.

Back in their room Harold said, C’mon Lena, I’d like to get on the road soon, so we can get an early start today. Are you almost ready?

Yes I’m just about finished packing, Lena said.

They were back on I-95 heading south. As usual Harold was driving. Lena began to search through her purse mumbling How come I can never find a tissue when I need one? When he looked over Harold noticed that Lena had tears running down her face. What’s wrong? You feeling ok?

I’m okay, I’m okay it’s just that the little girl reminded me so much of Sandra. She had the same curly hair and was so close to her in age when–.

Oh Lena honey that was so long ago, please don’t upset yourself, we can’t change what happened in the past. Try and think of something else. Lets listen to some music. C’mon I’ll put a nice CD in, how about some Tony Bennett? You know you love him.

As Lena listened to Tony’s rendition of San Francisco, her mind wandered back to their early years. It was Lynbrook, New York, where she and Harold lived after they married. They bought their little house after Harold was discharged from the service.

According to the ads, it was a good place to raise a family. Harold had a pharmacist’s degree and