News

By Ron Hayes
HYPOLUXO ISLAND — Jenny Bremanis’ son had a theory about his mother’s longevity.
    “In New Jersey, her house had a basement, two floors and a walk-up attic,” Jake Bremanis recalled not long before her last birthday. “She got a lot of exercise.”
Mrs. Bremanis dined with about 20 friends at La Cigale in Delray Beach when she turned 101 on Oct. 1. She died Jan. 17 at JFK Medical Center, where she had battled a serious infection for nearly a month.
    “Finally, there was nothing they could do,” said her daughter, Biruta Ditrichs, with whom she lived. “She passed away peacefully.”
    Born Jevgenija Emsins in Latvia, Mrs. Bremanis arrived in Germany’s American zone in 1945 with her husband, Jekabs, whom she married in 1935. Mr. Bremanis died in 1976, and she never remarried. Of their five children, one died before the war, another while they were traveling. A third, Andre, died in 2008.
    In 1950, the family settled in New Brunswick, N.J., where she worked as a seamstress for Bond’s clothiers for 20 years.
    “I was always working,” she told those who asked about her long life. “I bake rye bread, cake, sewing and working real hard all the time.”
    Even at 100, she kept busy knitting slippers, which she gave away to friends and visitors. “I’m still working!” she boasted.
    Mrs. Bremanis never lost her European accent, but embraced American culture.
    “Elizabeth Taylor was her favorite actress,” recalls her granddaughter, Dana Kunkel, “and General Hospital her favorite soap opera. She hated bananas, but ate one every day because she knew it was good for her. She never wore pants, always dresses and skirts, many hand-sewn. And she ate sushi for the first time several years ago — and loved it.”
    In addition to her daughter, son and granddaughter, she is survived by a daughter-in-law, Valda Bremanis of Gulf Breeze; four other grandchildren, Lyn Bremanis-Conway, Andrew Bremanis, Denis Ditrichs and Inge Houghton; and eight great-grandchildren.
    She was buried beside her husband, Jekabs, and son Andre in North Brunswick’s cemetery on Jan. 21. Brown’s Funeral Home, Lantana, was in charge locally.
    The family asks that donations be made to Hospice of the Palm Beaches.