Dear Editor:
Recently my mother, Alease Cumberbatch, passed away. She was last treated at Hoboken University Medical Center for dehydration and an opportunistic infection that the doctors were unable to control. Her stay was short and she never complained of pain, and for that I am grateful. She was a proud and kind lady who taught her children, their children’s children, etc., the things they needed to know to get along in life.
My mother lived most of her 84 years in Hoboken, and with my father Melville (also deceased), raised a family of four. She was a noted ‘bingophile’ and spent many a Sunday with my sister Eletha on Pauline’s Atlantic City trips. She also loved visiting the parks and walking the streets of Hoboken and meeting with the many people she would encounter on these adventures.
We were schooled and we socialized in Hoboken. As an ‘old’ Hoboken family, my sisters Marie Taylor and Eletha Parker and myself were gratified to see the amount of people that took the time out of their busy days to pay their last respects to my mother.
I know that if my mother could, she would have asked, “Are all these people here to see me?”
In closing I would like to say thank you to everyone who in some way participated in my mothers’ life as well as paid their respects in her death.
I would like to extend a special thanks to my old friends and colleagues at the Hoboken Police Department. Your presence at my time of grief was especially comforting, and I can’t explain in words my gratitude to A/Chief Robert Lisa, Lieutenant Walter Wehrhahn, Sergt Enrico Gnassi and the multitude of officers, both active and retired, who participated in ensuring my mother had a send off that would have made her heart proud.
Sincerely,
Simeon N. Cumberbatch
Captain of Police, ret.