Edith C. (Climan) Handleman

Edith “Edie” Handleman of Greenfield, Massachusetts, died on Wednesday, March 27, 2024, at 101 years and 8 months of age. Edith Celia Climan was born in Hartford, CT. When she was five years old, her mother, Rose, died of tuberculosis. Her father remarried and three more siblings were added to her and her brother, Marty’s family.

Edie married musician and Army soldier Eddie in 1942. She would always say, “The day I met Daddy was the day my life began.” Coming from poverty and little formal education, she always generously plowed ahead, and because of her, all three of their children had everything they needed and most of what they wanted as well as college educations and cars.

Edie loved being out and about with people and she loved to work. Of her many jobs, among her favorites were as a saleslady in the candy aisle (she could not believe her good luck) at a downtown Hartford 5 & 10, as a delivery driver for a Hartford dental lab, and as a nurse's aide at a hospital near Clearwater, FL. During WWII she worked on airplane propellers at the East Hartford Pratt and Whitney aircraft factory. She also volunteered with the US Citizens Defense Corps on top of the G Fox building shining spotlights in the sky in search of enemy planes.

Edie and Eddie traveled extensively in their middle and later years, both in the US and abroad. She was a hearty, healthy soul, a go-er and a do-er, impatient to live life fully. She loved red roses, the color purple, and was partial to fancy dresses and having her hair dyed red. She kept a neat and clean little brick house she had built in Hartford, but did not like to cook. She said she only had a kitchen because it came with the house. She favored seafood, Chinese food, cheese on anything, cherries, bananas, licorice and especially chocolate, but would drop all of these things for a lobster roll.

She loved to walk, read mysteries, health books and magazines. People mattered more to her than things. She enjoyed making many handcrafted items, most of which were given away. She also sang in choruses and performed in town plays in her younger years.

The couple moved from Hartford to Florida where they bought a house in Clearwater and then to a condo in Delray. They moved to Greenfield many years later, first to the “High-Rise", then Edie moved to the “Weldon” after Eddie died in 2001, and finally to RegalCare at Greenfield.

She leaves behind her three children, Betsy, Joseph (Lillian), (Pola, his former wife),and Randie (Carol), three grandchildren, Kimbery (Damon), Amanda (Tim), Emily (Steve), three step-grandchildren, Kevin, Micaela, and Erik, as well as six great grandchildren and six step-great grandchildren.

Gone are the aches, pains and tears, the confines of a walker, a wheelchair, hearing aids, and a failing memory. She is now with her grandmother, Anna/Tabel, she so loved and missed, and the husband she adored. Be happy and at peace now. Edie often said, “I do the best I can.” Now we navigate the world without her….and do the best we can.

Private Burial services will be held at the convenience of the family, in the Temple Israel Cemetery, Greenfield, MA. In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be sent to LifePath, 101 Munson St, Suite 201, Greenfield, MA 01301 or to New England Hospice, 190 Old Derby St., Suite 304, Hingham, MA 02043. McCarthy Funeral Homes entrusted with Edie’s care and arrangements. Remembrances may be directed to her Tribute Wall at www.mccarthyfuneralhomes.com

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