Here is a photograph taken at the bar mitzvah of Eileen and Lou’s son, the gardener’s cousin. From left to right are Danny Vendola, Charlotte Riskin Vendola, matriarch Celia Goodstein Scheshko, Eileen Scheshko Horowitz, Louis D. Horowitz, Diana Shulman Scheshko Castle, Murray Scheshko Castle, and Charlotte and Danny’s best friends on the far right.

Since I have posted on this blog so irregularly I will remind you who they are. Diana and Murray, as you probably do know, are the gardener’s parents–hence, my in-laws. I’ve written quite a bit about Murray and Diana and plan to move on to Diana’s family soon.

I’ve also written many posts about the gardener’s grandmother, Celia. Yes, she’s teeny. I know you were thinking or saying that to yourself because everyone always does. At this point, in 1968, her husband Isidore has been gone for at least fifteen years.

Eileen is Murray’s only sibling. She was married to Lou, and last week I wrote about Lou’s famous paint store. Charlotte was the only known/American/living first cousin of Murray and Eileen. She lived in Stamford with her husband, Danny Vendola. They did everything with their best friends, which is, I imagine, why the couple is in this family portrait. One day they no longer were friends, and Charlotte never spoke of them again.

What kids were part of this family, though not in the photo?

Well, Eileen and Lou had two children, their son whose big day this was, and their first-born, daughter Michelle. (I don’t like to use names of living family members, in most cases, but Michelle has passed away. I wrote briefly about Michelle in More About Eileen.

Murray and Diana also had one boy and one girl, the gardener and his sister. Charlotte and Danny did not have children.

So the Scheshkos were a small family. What members of the family were left behind when Isidore and Celia came to this country (separately) from what was then known as Russia is unknown at this point.