Ruth Gozdowski

Ruth Gozdowski was born January 11, 1920 and died on October 20, 2008. She lived for over fifty years on Hunting Lane in Wilbraham, MA where she loved watching the seasons change on Bruuer Pond. She had grown up as Ruth Deutschendorf during the Depression in Pittsburg, PA. She liked to tell the story of meeting Matt Gozdowski at the corner of Linden and Electric Avenue in Pittsburgh for the first date of their union of 65 years. Her drive, discipline, and occasional stubbornness was a good match for his free wheeling spirit that had vision but sometimes forgot the details. She picked up the pieces and helped to build the success that was enjoyed for many years by the family business, Millane's Drug in Palmer, MA. She was the force that did the store's paperwork late at night when it was delivered to her kitchen table in a paper shopping bag by Matt after a long day on his feet in the store. They were a good team.

During this time, she managed to share her own life long love of reading and writing with her sons, Jim and Ken. This was not an easy sell in the new age of television. Even in black and white, TV was quite mesmerizing. Ruth was an early advocate against the wasteland of television and how it threatened our literacy. After her family had grown, she got to pursue her passion at the Jewish Community Center where she took creative writing classes to preserve her personal history for future generations. Her granddaughters: Jenny, Jill, Liana, Jocelyn and her great granddaughter, Morgan will have essays of whimsy, history, and erudition to remind them of their Granny Goz. She delighted in her granddaughters and over the years hand-made them gifts of clothing, sweaters and quilts with loving detail down to the embroidered tag that completed each gift with the message – "Made especially for you by Granny Goz." In retirement Ruth enjoyed golf, and although she never approached PAR, she never let it bother her. For her, it was all about getting outside for a good walk in the fresh air and the enjoyment of friendships at the Wilbraham Country Club where she and Matt were members for many years. Her other retirement passion was travel. She loved driving across the country to visit friends and relatives, always stopping along the way to search for the perfect sticky bun and send postcards with messages from the road. After years of having only men in the family, Ruth was delighted when her daughters-in-law, Becky and Karen, joined the family. She was enormously proud of her family. She thought they were the nicest people on earth. She was pleased to have passed on her love of scholarship, good coffee cake, the appreciation of a gorgeous New England Fall day, warm quilts and whispering in the night during sleepovers to all who loved her. She is survived not only by her immediate family as mentioned but by a brother, Bob Deutschendorf, a lifelong friend, Evelyn Uguccioni, and several nieces and nephews.

A Memorial Service will be held at a later date. Varnum Funeral Home of West Brookfield is entrusted with the arrangements.