Obituary — Gertrude Dromboski

7960417500?profile=originalBy Ron Hayes
    BRINY BREEZES — Gertrude Dombroski started spending her winters here in 1953 and became a permanent resident in the early 1980s.
She left, from her own bed, at 6:35 p.m. on Nov. 28, holding her daughter’s hand as I’ll Be Home For Christmas played on the stereo.
She was 95 and always claimed that Briny was “the closest thing to heaven.”
    “She loved the clean air,” recalled her daughter, Candy Alexandra, who shared her home. “There was nowhere on Earth where you could open your door in the morning and smell the salt breeze. In the early days, everybody knew what everyone else was having for supper because all the windows were open.”
    Born Gertrude Koskulitz in Hazleton, Pa., on Dec. 29, 1916, she was one of eight children, all of whom she had survived.
    In 1940, she married Ted Dombroski, who died in 2001 after 61 years of marriage. The couple were in the amusement business.
    In addition to her daughter, she had a son, also named Ted, who died in 2007.
    Although she did not attend college herself, Mrs. Dombroski stressed the importance of education, and both her children earned doctoral degrees.
    Her son held a doctorate in behavioral psychology from the University of Houston.
    Her daughter has master’s degrees in music education and music therapy from the University of Colorado and Florida State University and also earned a doctorate in early childhood development from Nova Southeastern University.
    “I got my love of music from my mother,” she explained. “We didn’t have a radio in the car, so I’d ask her for a song and she’d sing it. She used to wake us up by singing any cheerful song that came into her mind, or else she’d make one up.”
    Despite having suffered from severe rheumatoid arthritis in her early 30s, Mrs. Dombroski taught herself to walk again and recovered so much agility that friends and neighbors in the park were astonished by her vitality.
    “She used to run all over the place,” remembers neighbor Terry Kline, who met Mrs. Dombroski when she was 90. “She was the most amazing woman, running around all over the place. My dog, Madison, always loved her because she gave him treats. Whenever I took him for a walk, he only wanted to go next door.”
    A funeral Mass will be said at 11 a.m. on Jan. 9 at St. Vincent Ferrer Catholic Church in Delray Beach.
Her daughter requests that no flower or monetary donations be made. “Just say a prayer for her,” she said.

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