Michelle L. Whiting
Michelle Whiting’s obituary depicts a life that wasn’t always easy, the kind you might hear about in a wistful lyric from the country music she loved.
“Country music was her heartbeat,” it reads. “She found herself in the lyrics, stories of heartache, grit and wild joy.”
But the 45-year-old Camden County resident – who died on Mother’s Day – pushed on “with a stubborn kind of grace.”
“She faced it all,” the obituary notes of Michelle’s tendency to find the silver lining in things. “ … Life had thrown its share of curveballs and the path forward wasn’t always clear.”
That path included a gift for helping others and – above all – mothering two daughters and a son.
“Everything was for the kids,” Michelle’s father, Ronald, told nj.com.
Born in Philadelphia and raised in Gloucester City, Michelle “was the loudest cheerleader” at her children’s games, her obituary notes, “the tireless driver to practices and the warm hug waiting at the end of a hard day.”
“Her kids were her world,” said friend Tammy Ventura on a GoFundMe page she set up to benefit Michelle’s kids.
To hear Ventura tell it, Michelle also had an “army” of pals to whom she provided solace and good cheer.
“She had so many friends and she was so young,” Ventura noted. One of those friends, Shirley Samartino, paid tribute to Michelle in a post on her obituary.
“Such a beautiful person who loved life, her children and just life in general.”
Ventura described herself as Michelle’s “old-lady friend.”
“When she just wanted to sit by the fire outside and chill while drinking her Twisted Teas, she would visit.”
Imagine Michelle Whiting now chilling to a country ballad about a life well lived.
Sources: Etherington and Creran Funeral Homes, Echovita.com, nj.com
Monroe Gary Milstein
Monroe Milstein had a $75,000 hunch.
That’s how much of his wife’s savings from teaching he used for the down payment on a former factory in Burlington in 1972, according to the New York Times. The business drew customers from Philadelphia and other areas in search of discounts.
It became the Burlington Coat Factory.
Monroe’s hunch resulted in more than 280 U.S. locations by 2001, according to the Wall Street Transcript. Sold in 2006, the chain netted Monroe and his wife, Henrietta, just over $1 billion.
Bronx-born Monroe – who died last month at 98 – started out in the same Manhattan business as his father just after graduating from college in his teens, according to the Transcript. While he built Burlington Coat Factory into a juggernaut that eventually sold men’s and women’s clothing; baby outfits; and shoes, among other products, coats made the man. His chain’s large inventory drew customers who wanted choice at the right price.
The sky was the limit. Yet Monroe stayed down to earth, recalled Debra Fallek in a tribute on Monroe’s online obituary.
” … Even after financial success,” she wrote of Henrietta and Monroe, who were friends of her parents, “their values stayed with them.”
Former employee Judy Grassi recalled a piece of advice from her boss.
“Monroe was a good, honest, fair person who took care of his people,” her online tribute read. “He was easy to talk to. He said to me, ‘If you like your job, it’s not work.’”
If that’s the case, then Monroe Milstein never worked a day in his life.
Sources: Dignity Memorial, Echovita.com, New York Times
A penny saved
The next time someone wants to give you a “penny for your thoughts,” you might want to tell them what you’re thinking will soon cost a nickel.
Because the penny will soon be dead. Born in 1787, according to pennies.org, it’s scheduled for burial next year. The U.S. Treasury has minted the coin’s last batch, and when they’re gone – likely in early ’26, according to the Wall Street Journal – penny pinchers will have to resort to squeezing another denomination, maybe a soft bill.
Ironically, the copper coin is no longer worth a pretty penny because it’s too expensive to keep, Newsweek reported. According to the U.S. Mint, each one costs about 3.7 cents to make due to costly zinc, the penny’s other metal component. Its expiration is expected to save the country about $56 million a year.
Meanwhile, as a coin of the realm, even a bad penny will still be accepted as legal tender. If you’re penny wise and pound foolish, you may want to stock up, put some in the bank or keep them under a mattress. That way, you’ll have two cents to rub together.
You can bet your bottom dollar on that.
