Remembering Daisy, A Twin and Mom of Twins

This was a very sorrowful day in 1981. My mother (Daisy Schwartz Burk, 1919-1981) passed away 45 years ago today, after a courageous three-year battle with breast cancer. 

Mom was a twin: Her sister was Dorothy H. Schwartz (1919-2001), who taught steno and typing for decades at Christopher Columbus High School in the Bronx, NY.

Mom had been a legal secretary before becoming a school secretary at Central Commercial High School in the heart of Manhattan (later renamed and relocated). This photo is from the school's 1972 yearbook.

Daisy was a super-duper typist and stenographer, juggling work and evening or weekend school (to earn college credits for salary increases) plus bringing up her twin daughters (me and Sis) and our younger sister. This week I surprised my Sis (and other relatives) by baking a dish she learned from her Mom: meatloaf with a hard-boiled egg hidden inside. It was a hit!

Missing Mom and thinking of her with much love today. Her beloved first cousin sent me this photo of Mom at the beach in the early 1940s. I and love it (and her) so much!