By Emily J. Minor
OCEAN RIDGE - Jacqueline Bander Weisblut, 65, died on Memorial Day after bravely suffering from multiple sclerosis since she was a young woman in her early 20s.
Her husband, Bob Weisblut, said his wife suffered a heart attack and that doctors don’t believe the sudden attack was related to her years of MS.
Mrs. Weisblut was diagnosed with MS in 1966. A difficult disease to diagnose even today, Bob Weisblut said multiple sclerosis was even more difficult to diagnose back then.
“It was done through elimination,” he said. “They eliminated what else they thought it was and then they decided it was MS. There were no medications for it.”
But although his wife suffered with the disease all her adult life, she never let the illness define her, he said. She worked at IBM for many years when the couple lived outside Washington, D.C.
In the 1980s, Bob Weisblut’s father bought a Florida home in Boynton Beach and the couple began visiting him here. They found that they liked the southern weather, which was nice for Jacqueline Weisblut’s ailing body. The warm weather was much easier on her than the cold northern winters, he said.
In 1992, the couple bought Ocean Liner Villa Apartments after a few winters of seasonal leasing.
“It was nice,” he said. “She could sit in the building and see the ocean. She always said it was like sitting on the back of an ocean liner.”
Once they relocated, Bob Weisblut said they adjusted to the Florida life with ease. Their apartment complex - once strictly short-term, seasonal renters - evolved into long-term leasing. They made friends and enjoyed dining out. Despite her physical limitations, they still went out to dinner or a show two or three nights a week, he said.
Jacqueline Weisblut also loved to read and enjoyed watching TV and movies on DVDs, he said.
“We met a lot of people down here and made a lot of friends,” he said. “She had a pretty full social calendar and she coped with it very, very well.”
Bob Weisblut said his wife wasn’t feeling well on Memorial Day so he took her to the emergency room, where she suffered a fatal heart attack.
After her death, Bob Weisblut enjoyed visits from many friends, including some longtime friends he has known since high school who have moved down here.
Besides her husband, Jacqueline Weisblut is survived by a sister and several nieces and nephews. Donations can be made in her memory with the National Multiple Sclerosis Society, P.O. Box 4527, New York, N.Y., 10163.
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