Lillian Breshgold, born April 7, 1921, died peacefully in her home

surrounded by her family on

January 7, 2015.

She was 93.

Lil (Lea) Slotnick was born in Detroit, Michigan in 1921 to Herman and Esther (Sherman) Slotnick. She had an older brother Ed and a younger brother, Irv. After graduating from Northern High School, she worked at various jobs including at a furniture store, a suspender factory, and at Barton’s Chocolates. Lil met William (Bill) Breshgold in 1941 at a dance. In 1943 she took a train across country with her future sister-in-law Jean to be near where he was stationed in the Mojave Dessert. She got a job and lived in a boarding house in Los Angeles until Bill shipped out, first to Hawaii, and eventually to the Philippines, New Guinea and then Japan after the war. They corresponded during the war years, and were married on January 20, 1946. They had three children Steven, Eva (Elaine), and Char.

Lil was a wonderful cook and gardener and got great pleasure from serving fresh-from-her-garden vegetables, and homemade pickles, and from making holiday meals and the traditional Jewish foods she learned to cook from her mother-in-law. She enjoyed feeding her family, friends, and anyone who was hungry. It was one of the ways she took care of people, and expressed her love. In addition to running a household, raising three children and taking care of her mother (who lived with the family for four years after her husband died) she worked as a cashier, and then did office work full time in a jewelry store. She was a proud member of the Retail Clerks Union during her later working years in Michigan.

In 1977, Lil and Bill moved to Dunedin, Florida where they enjoyed retirement living in their Heather Ridge Community, with trips to Clearwater Beach, cruises, card games and parties at the pool with the good friends they made there. Their children visited often, as did other relatives and friends from Michigan and elsewhere. Lil was an active member of the Jewish War Veteran’s Ladies Auxiliary, raising funds for the local veteran’s hospital and visiting schools to share Jewish holidays and traditions. She was also a long time volunteer reading tutor, and often said she would have liked to have been a teacher.

In 2001, four years after Bill’s death in 1997, when she was 80, Lil made the big move to Courtyard at Mount Tabor in Portland, Oregon to live near her daughters. During her thirteen years in Portland she enjoyed many wonderful family holidays, going to the movies and out to dinner, visits from her son Steve and daughter-in-law Carol, trips to the beach, and family events including the weddings of her two (step) grandchildren Maya Zahm (to Raul Preciado) and Zachary (to Jill Fine). She so enjoyed this connection with Maya, Zack, Raul and Jill, and watching her (step) great grandchildren Nathan and Nina grow. For several seasons she was involved with Viking Friends Forever, a group from Courtyard that “adopted” members of the Portland State University Women’s Basketball team. She and other members were taken on the bus to games, and hosted the players for dinners and other events. She loved going to the games and cheering on her “adopted” granddaughters. She became an avid

Trailblazer fan as well.

Lil was very social, easily making friends and connecting with people wherever she went. She developed her own loving relationships with her daughters-in-law Carol (Breshgold) and Laura (La Rosa), and her son-in-law Steve (Zahm). And she maintained connections with her brothers, life long friends, nieces, nephews, great nieces and nephews, and her in-laws (her sisters-in-law thought of her more as a sister) in Michigan and elsewhere, although not able to see them often. She enjoyed life fully, appreciating small things like a sunny day, or the changing colors of fall leaves, even when she was dealing with pain and limited mobility. In this way she inspired all of us, showing us how to age gracefully, to accept loss and change, to make the best of difficult situations, and to appreciate the

daily pleasures of life.