My mother, Iris Aster, who we all knew as Chicky, was an amazing woman. I have been so blessed the God let us choose each other. I am who I am today because of her…and so are my daughters.
She was a loving and attentive mother and a brilliant business woman. She was way ahead of her time when it came to nutrition, though, as I write this, it sounds a bit ridiculous because she didn’t care much about her own! But at home, it was always homemade cookies and cakes, no soda and no candy.
She was kind, she was funny, and she was truly remarkable. Chicky ran her own business, Chicky’s Antiques, in Queens successfully for 40 years. When my dad passed away she gave up her business and moved to Montauk where she opened Vintage Pink with me. Everyone who met her loved her.
Chicky was born in 1930 in a small town in rural Alabama called Demopolis. She was born a “blue baby” with a hole in her heart and had a lot of trouble walking any distance because she would lose her breath. She had a donkey and wagon to pull her around. When she walked she would squat to catch her breath, so her classmates named her Chicken. That name stuck until she moved up north to New York where it turned into Chicky.
She was a miracle. When she was little, she overheard a doctor tell her mother that she probably wouldn’t live past the age of 20. She defied that. She went on to graduate from the University of Alabama and met my dad Teddy in Miami, while he was there on leave from the Army. The married in 1956 in New York. After they married, Dad paid for her to have heart surgery at the Mayo Clinic. She was the oldest person to ever undergo that’s surgery meant for babies and, as she always said, made it into the history books.
My parents had two children, myself, Julie and my brother Steven, who has since passed from cancer. We were raised in Whitestone, Queens. She is also survived by her two grandchildren, Emily Rose and Ella Bleu of Montauk.
I love her so very much. These last 15 years we had together were such a gift. She was my very best friend, my confidante, my therapist, my companion, my business partner and most of all…my Mom.
She loved everyone so deeply and she made sure they knew it. She especially loved her family. We meant the world to her. She was always with us. It was the five of us for every dinner, every vacation, every holiday…every single day. That made her so happy and we were all so blessed to have her in our lives for so long.
Mom, I love you…the most. Rest in Peace!