32 times • MAY 28, 2015 FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT www.timesnewsweekly.com old timer SHARING MEMORIES of Ridgewood friendships They were destined to be good friends at birth, since their mothers were friends with each other. But the three Ridgewood women you’re about to read about have managed to keep their friendship alive and well for six decades and counting. We learned of this friendship through a letter and photo sent to our co-publisher, Victoria Schneps- Yunis, from Peggy Virgadamo of Ridgewood, who recalled her octogenerian bond with two other native Ridgewood residents. Virgadamo writes: The three “girls” are friends since birth, as their parents were neighbors and friends in Ridgewood when their mothers carried them together in 1930. Nadine Ferguson Freiss, Catherine Bruder Donovan and I all attended Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal School, St. Barbara’s and Bishop McDonnell Memorial High School before marrying local “boys” in Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal Church, raising a total of 10 children in Ridgewood. Nadine and Catherine, together with over 60 close family members and friends spanning eight decades — many of them former and current Ridgewoodites — came together from all over the country to celebrate the 85th birthday of my husband, Paul Virgadamo, and myself. So many beautiful testimonials were shared that laughter, tears, love and gratitude permeated the room. Catherine had introduced us in 1944, and we have been married for almost 63 years. Paul’s father owned and operated a family beauty shop in Ridgewood for almost 60 years, and Paul and I still live in the same house where he was born on Menahan Street — and where we first met. I worked for John F. Krisch Inc. and the Schauer Agency for a combined 29 years, served as a consultant for the Diocesan Home School Association as well as a board member for the Home School Association of Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal School, the Ridgewood Property Owners and Civic Association and Community Board 5. I have also been a member of the Rosary Altar Society of Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal for 57 years. We thank Ms. Virgadamo for sharing her story with us and the beautiful picture of the three friends you see on this page. It’s interesting to note that their friendship outlasted each of the grammar and high schools they attended. Thousands of Ridgewood children attended Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal school through the years, but in 2009, the Diocese of Brooklyn and Queens merged OLMM with neighboring St. Aloysius School to form the Notre Dame Catholic Academy of Ridgewood. The merger was in response to the trend of dwindling enrollment at both schools in the preceding years. The academy is entirely housed within the former OLMM campus; St. Aloysius School, which was located on Seneca Avenue, was eventually sold to the city Department of Education, which tore the structure down to build a new public elementary school. St. Barbara’s School in Bushwick graduated its final class in 1973, but the school remains in service to students in Brooklyn as the Pope John Paul II Catholic Academy. Finally, Bishop McDonnell Memorial High School was a school for girls on Eastern Parkway in Crown Heights, Brooklyn. It too graduated its final class in 1973 and is now used as the St. Francis de Sales School for the Deaf. If you have memories, photos or stories you’d like to share with The Old Timer, send an email to editorial@ridgewoodtimes.com, or write to The Old Timer, c/o Ridgewood Times, 62-70 Fresh Pond Rd., Ridgewood, NY 11385. All mailed photographs will be carefully returned to you. The campus of Notre Dame Catholic Academy of Ridgewood, which was previously Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal School. (photo via Property Shark, Nicholas Strini) Old Timer: The exterior of Notre Dame Catholic Academy of Ridgewood, which was formerly Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal School. (Photo via Property Shark, Nicholas Strini)
RT05282015
To see the actual publication please follow the link above