Lee Sokoloff

On the 22nd day of August, 2024, Lee Sokoloff peacefully passed away in the morning hours at the Cedar Manor Nursing Home in Ossining, NY. Preceded in death by her parents Ann and Louis

Sokoloff she is survived by her sister Marion, brother Harry and her many nieces and nephews. In recent years the family all have come to refer to her with affection as Titi Lee or simply Titi.

In high school Lee excelled in bookkeeping which led to her career working for the Corporation of Health and Hospitals of The City of New York. Initially her rise up the corporate ladder was impeded by not having a college degree. However, this young bookkeeper with her exceptional skill, ability, and sound work ethic, found her way to the office of the Chancellor for the department where she displayed her unique skills at solving intricate accounting challenges. Her college-degreed colleagues, with their loftier salaries and titles routinely came to her for advice. No doubt about it, Lee became the ultimate problem-solver for the entire department.

Not a religious person per se, Lee cherished her Jewish identity. She never attempted to hide it at a time, and in some places, where, unfortunately, it was not so uncommon to do so. Proudly, she was an avid supporter of the state of Israel. Beyond that she would not hesitate to advocate for peoples in need of all races and religions and heralded their successes while doing so, She loved NYC, loved its people and diversity. She joked of the irony of having moved out of Manhattan to an apartment in the Bronx that was within walking distance of her office. Soon thereafter, the office changed its location to Manhattan. Eventually, back she went to living in Manhattan.

It was there that she met her soon to be best friend, Rose. Their friendship was unique in that, politically speaking, they were complete opposites. I bring this up because it was such a treat to watch these two go at it in a political discussion of contrasting views. Rose calling Lee a communist, Lee retorting by calling Rose a fascist. Though their views were honest differences of opinion, their debates were all done in teasingly good fun and very entertaining to listen to if you were lucky enough to catch one of them. While sarcasm may have ruled the day, in the end they truly loved and respected each other. The world could use a little more of that today.

Lee will be remembered by family mostly for her generosity, her wisdom, her impeccable honesty and integrity in all of her business and personal dealings. Added to that would be her wonderfully crocheted Afghan blankets that she generously bestowed as gifts, her many unique restaurant discoveries (we still pine for places like Luna's and Lin's Garden) her obsession with all things blue, and her sarcastic sense of humor. As testament to that last item, naming her one and only pet "D.C", a cat gifted to her, comes to mind. Yes, "D.C.", standing for "Damn Cat" as she proudly proclaimed it. Well, that "Damn Cat" was treated like royalty. In actuality, D.C. was a very affectionate pet, who in return brought her endless hours of joy. Sarcasm was definitely Lee's calling card with regards to humor. Other examples of this would be when she would repeatedly introduced her 60 something year old brother at the time, to attendants at the Cedar Manor nursing home as her "baby brother", adding, and he used to be a good boy," emphasizing the words "used to be." Once at the nursing home Debbie's husband,

Scott, had promised to fix Lee's room clock but as it turned out couldn't. For that she pronounced him a "blowhard." Those present were taken back by her unfiltered declaration. Scott took her comment in stride, as is his nature. But a sign to us all we knew things were continuing to change as her dementia was advancing. As we look back at the incident now, we don't hesitate to tease Scott about it. It seems to have taken on a life of its own as a family joke.

Aunt Lee doted on her nieces, Linda and Debbie, advised them as they grew into the women they are today, helping every so often with a bit of a financial boost here and there along the way. She did the same with her brother, nephew Philip and her grand nieces and nephews as they appeared upon the family scene. All representing a pure expression of love. And she was so very careful to balance the value of her generous gifts equally. No favoritism with Aunt Lee. No, no, no, her sense of fairness would never permit for that.

The Cape Cod years were glorious ones as she spent more of her summertime years there. Her first cottage was shared with her beloved sister Marion and brother-in law-Larry. Cape Cod must have appeared to her as the land of the Lilliputin. Seemingly everything to her became preceded with the adjective "little". Little car, little boat, little bridge etc. We would often chuckle at this habit and enjoy teasing her by saying something like, "Lee, look over there at the 'little' mansion by the 'little' sea." Then there were her frequent mispronunciations of words that some of us enjoyed teasing her about. For instance, the word "infinity" that she would repeatedly mis-pronounce as "in-fe-nee-tee". Blue became another obsession that she will be remembered for. Blue this, blue that, blue everything. Her car interior was blue, her carpet and throw rugs were blue, her dishes were blue, her lamp shades were blue. With all that blue surrounding her she managed to display it with impeccable taste. When she adapted a theme she definitely stuck to it.

She become a tough old bird, as they say, displaying a strong constitution. Nine years in a nursing home would attest to that. Unfortunately, her last couple of years were not the best. She lost her ability to converse and respond to most of what we would share with her when visiting. I say "most of" because even then, if we were to display an image of her nephew Philip, or niece Linda would put grand nephew Avi on a FaceTime call to Lee, a smile would appear. And in a most recent visit when Lee was in a totally non-communicative phase, Debbie and Scott showed her family photos of grand nieces, Amanda, Laci, grand nephews Aden and newly arrived Levi, she became very focused and the tiniest smile of recognition could be detected. Her wisdom, generosity, and loving ways will be missed by all who knew her.

-Written by her now 75 year old "baby brother who... used to be a good boy."