Bernice Teller, 94, showed her grandsons always came first
Mrs. Teller, an avid reader who volunteered at the synagogue near her daughter's home in Ambler, died April 7 of complications from coronavirus,
- Bernice Teller
- 94 years old
- Lived in Dresher
- Her three grandsons “were always her top priority”
Above all else, Bernice Teller, by her own admission, was a grandmother to her three grandsons — Adam, Jonathan, and Cory.
“They were always her top priority,” said Mrs. Teller’s daughter, Jane Knobler. “She would drop everything if they needed her for anything. One of my sons, when he was a little kid, had to write an essay about someone who was important in his life, and he wrote about my mother, saying, ‘She is my confidante,’ that he could tell her anything.
“We used to have a joke because when they would get in trouble with me or my husband, they would run to the phone in another room and call her and ask her to smooth it over and say, ‘Don’t tell her that we called you.’ Of course, she would play along and say, ‘Oh, no, I would never tell your mother.’ Then she’d call me and she’d be hysterical laughing on the other end.”
Mrs. Teller, 94, died Tuesday, April 7, at an assisted living facility in Long Beach, N.Y., of complications from the coronavirus.
Mrs. Teller lived for the first part of her married life in Freeport, N.Y., near where she worked as a secretary for Equitable Life Insurance. She and her husband. Louis, moved to Dresher in the mid-1980s to be closer to her daughter’s family and later moved in with them. She was a volunteer at Beth Or Synagogue in Spring House.
“She was worried when she moved here that she would impose on us,” Knobler said. “She thought at her age that making friends here would be difficult, but it wasn’t. They made friends immediately, and they had a very, very full life here. It was like they lived here forever.”
Mrs. Teller loved reading and “would whip through a book in a day or two,” her daughter said.
Born in Brooklyn, N.Y., Mrs. Teller grew up as part of a large extended family. Her father, who immigrated to the United States from Russia when he was 12, and his seven brothers were involved in operating delicatessens in Brooklyn, all called Radin’s Delicatessen. Every Sunday was a family party, her daughter said.
Mrs. Teller was predeceased by her husband. In addition to her daughter and son-in-law Robert, she is survived by son Sandy and her grandsons.
Due to COVID-19, there was no public graveside service or shiva.
— Joe Juliano