Rachel Cassidy – her life in brief summary Written by Mimi Wahlfeldt, her loving daughter, 3/11/19 Rachel Cassidy was born Rachel Miriam Lipschitz (later changed to Lewis) in Brooklyn, NY, on September 9, 1937, to parents Morris and Grace, where an older sister, Surelle awaited her. The family moved to Richmond, VA, when my mom was 8 years old, and she remained “a yankee” in the South until she moved to Poughkeepsie, NY, in 1960, with her first husband, Sidney Friedenberg, when he accepted a computer programming job with IBM. Being Jewish in Virginia in the 1940s was difficult, and that experience likely influenced her own eventual liberal approach to life – she welcomed diversity among friends, valued people for who they are and not what they look like or who they love, and she believed deeply in doing the right thing, exercising your right to vote, and loving those you love in the most all-encompassing way.
As a young married woman (just 19 years old! ), she desperately wanted children, but the process did not come naturally for her, and she had surgery in 1964 in order to become pregnant. She was over-joyed when she delivered me, Miriam Simma (“Mimi”), in May 1965, and then just 17 months later, my sister, Naomi Pina (we called her Nami).
However, tragedy struck just 4 years later when my sister died from complications of a strep infection which led to a brain abscess. Her marriage didn’t survive this grief, but the bond she had with her one remaining child, me, was cemented. We were, as a result of the events of 1971, bonded to each other in a way that most mothers and daughters might never experience.
She loved to read, write and participate in community theater. Her contributions to the County Players in Wappingers Falls, NY, are legendary there, as she not only acted (brilliantly), but also stage managed and directed numerous productions throughout the four decades she was involved. Although her day job paid the bills (she worked as a legal secretary at a law firm, whipping the attorneys into shape), she loved her side-gig as a freelance journalist – a theater critic for the Poughkeepsie Journal throughout the 1980s and ‘90s.
She was an excellent writer, and this medium allowed her to combine her passion for theater and writing all in one. Back-stepping a bit: In 1974, we met an intelligent, funny, generous newly-retired colonel from the Army, Joe Cassidy, and we like to say that WE married him four years later. Joe “rescued” my mom and me by bringing us laughter, love and an appreciation for learning, travel and the gift of gab.
They were married 41 years this past January, and together they influenced hundreds and hundreds of people through their involvement in local theatre, the Democratic Party and the senior center in Fort Collins. They were a unified team, always together, completing each other, and serving as a role model couple for everyone they met. The most important thing to know about Rachel Cassidy, though, is when she loved, she loved fiercely, generously and unconditionally.
She felt that way about Joe, her grandchildren (Elaina Jae, 25, recently married to Tray Renfro), Adam Robert (23), me, my husband Stephen (whom she called the best son-in-law ever), and many, many dear friends. She also opened her heart to Stephen’s children, Megan and Trent, as “bonus grandchildren” after our marriage in 2001. Of all her accomplishments, she believed in the legacy of family and love, and she told me as she was facing her death bravely and on her own terms that she has no regrets.
May she be surrounded by her loving family who have gone before her, especially her daughter, Nami, in the unknown place I hope she is resting in today.
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