Epilogue
Pearl
In 1936 Pearl accepted a civil service position in Washington with the Farm Credit Administration. It seemed that in Washington Pearl blossomed; she began having a social life that she didn't have while living on Gorham St. When she got to Washington she shared an apartment with three other young women. She joined the Jewish Community Center, became active in some of their activities and her circle of friends, and perhaps her interests as well, expanded.
It was at the JCC that she met Gene Kaplan, and they were married in 1942. Gene was from New York and with some of his friends had come to Washington to work for the government, Gene in the Census Bureau. Gene was drafted in 1943 and sent to several different bases in this country. Pearl followed him to each of the bases where they could set up off-base temporary housing: in California, in Oklahoma, and other places. Gene was sent to Europe where he was assigned to the Strategic Bombing Survey. Pearl shared an apartment in Washington with a friend while Gene was overseas.
On his return from overseas in 1946 Gene enrolled at the graduate school at the University of Chicago. They lived in on-campus housing there, really prefab huts. Jon was born there in 1947.
They returned to Washington in about 1951 when Gene accepted a job with the Commerce Department. In 1956 they bought their house in Hollin Hills.
Pearl had a set of women friends and with them she visited the different art galleries in the city during the day, and sometimes in the evenings. Her interests in the cultural events in Washington were greater than Gene's. Pearl and Gene had subscription series to different music events such as the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Washington Opera, and the Emerson Quartet. Pearl was also and avid reader, and frequently had several books going at once.
Gene and Pearl traveled to Europe and to Asia. Pearl also worked away from home. She was a secretary to a local attorney, she worked at the library, and she was a volunteer at the mental health clinic. She had become an excellent cook and a very considerate hostess, and eating at the Kaplan's was always a treat.
Probably because religion was more important to Gene than Pearl, they became members of a reform synagogue, initially in Alexandria and later in Washington. Also, every Friday night Pearl lit the Sabbath candles and said the accompanying prayer. On most Passovers Pearl and Gene would be the hosts for a sizable Seder, 15 or so people. The food was always good, the people pleasant, and lightheartedness prevailed
It seems that in most of their life in Hollin Hills, Pearl was having health problems, which she didn't talk about. She did have colonoscopies, but no action was required. In the fall of 1990 Pearl experienced abdominal discomfort while on a trip. It was diagnosed as ovarian cancer. Pearl died August 1991, one month after her 77th birthday.
Gene's major health problems (that I remember) were a strained back that he suffered while he was participating on a government sponsored trade mission in the Far East (his area of specialty.) He was flown home on an Air Force medical evacuation plane. He was examined in the hospital and released, but for some time he slept in traction - a weight was attached to cloth sling that he wore under his chin, with the weight hung over the headboard of his bed. In the 1980s Gene was operated on for an enlarged prostate. He also suffered a heart attack in the 1980s.
On a trip to Florida in the winter of 1993 Gene became reacquainted with a widowed friend of the Kaplan's, Ginny Selin, who used to live in Hollin Hills. Ginny and Gene moved in together, spending the summers in Hollin Hills and the winters in her apartment in Sarasota. Gene at this time was starting to exhibit forgetfulness and other signs of dementia. They moved to Sarasota full time in about 1997. By 1999 Gene's condition had worsened to where Ginny could no longer care for him. Jon moved him to a nursing home in Albuquerque. Gene died of Alzheimer's in January 2000, just shy of his 80th birthday.
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