It is with love and admiration that we acknowledge the passing of Lorelei Charlotte Rosenberg Gastman on December 22, 2023. Born to Ada & Isaac Rosenberg on September 24, 1929, in Brooklyn, NY, Lorelei was the eldest of five siblings: Robert, Phillip, David, and Stanley.

Lorelei’s life was marked by style. At nineteen, she married Maurice Alan Gastman, her neighbor from five houses away on Westminster Rd. at the Hotel Pierre in NYC amidst top hats and coattails. Lorelei wore a white-laced wedding dress with a full train. Her passion for aesthetics led her to study at the NY School of Interior Design, from which she emerged as a key advisor for friends and family on everything from furniture to fashion.

Lorelei had a deep generosity of spirit which she practiced consistently as a mother, grandmother, friend, and neighbor. Her love for cooking meatloaf, casseroles, and Matzah ball soup filled her home with comfort and warmth and arose from her desire to provide for others. She was always prompt to answer a phone call with a drawn-out “helloooo?” and communicate attentively until the conversation ran its course. “Pass the ball to Daniel!” was her cheer at Southside basketball games and she supported Meri’s love of animals and ecology in the way she knew best, naming their first cat “Patience” as a lesson in virtues and eagerly listening to stories about dogs, turtles and the Florida ecosystem.

Lorelei’s homes were a mirror for her mind. There was a correct place and way for everything. She once ruined her statistics professor’s lesson on probability when she declared she never had any trouble finding matching pairs of socks in her dresser. Her commitment to order and propriety was the source of her integrity and made others trust her as a confidant. It was also a source of consternation for friends and family whose more relaxed or alternative approaches did not meet her exacting standards.

Lorelei provided strength and stability to her community. She frequently ran pickups and dropoffs and maintained a home away from home for her grandkids. She provided for loved ones in times of sadness and financial hardship. She also frustrated her tennis opponents with unending rallies and rare unforced errors, a career that ended in her mid-seventies after numerous trophies adorned her bookcase.

Despite her Alzheimer’s condition in her final years and up until her last days, laughter was a consistent part of the Gastman household. Dinners with Nana culminating in tears on our plates and bellies sore from too much food and laughter will be sorely missed.

Lorelei is survived by her daughter, Meri, son, Daniel, and grandchildren, Adam, Douglas, Zach, and Evan.

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