Betty Matusow Perlmutter appeared to be in excellent health while planning to celebrate her 100th birthday with a family dinner, followed by a larger gathering of friends and family, both of which were scheduled for April.
But Perlmutter’s health began to falter as she approached the big April 4 day, and she died peacefully in her daughter Harriet Zilber’s home on June 23.
Shortly before she died, Zilber recorded some of her mother’s thoughts.
"I have done it all and had such fun,” Perlmutter said. “I lived a lifetime of love. I found it in family, friendships, my community, food, books and sports. Look around you. Joy is there for the taking! Keep your eyes open. There is so much beauty. There is so much love. Live before life passes you by. I will be here, enjoying what gives me joy until I close my eyes at the end of my journey.”
In that recording, Perlmutter asked that anyone who wished to remember her should "do something nice for someone else" and "enjoy a piece of chocolate cake."
“I am convinced we could have been the poster family for what a good death could be,” Zilber told us last week. “It will take some time for the dust to settle, but Betty had a great run, truly touched others' lives, and I am a very fortunate daughter.”
Born at home in Germantown on April 5, 1924, to the late Ida Richman and Harry Matusow, Betty Perlmutter attended the Henry Elementary School, where two of her great-grandchildren (twins) are now rising second graders. Perlmutter went on to Roosevelt Jr. High School, and then to Germantown High School, graduating in 1941. After high school, the family moved to 6512 Lincoln Drive in Mt. Airy. “We liked eating at the restaurant in the Mayfair House (a 21-story apartment house at Lincoln Drive and Johnson Street that was demolished in 1999),” she said in a March interview with the Local.
Perlmutter was married in the house on Lincoln Drive. She and her husband, Jack, who worked in the finance industry, then moved to 330 W. Johnson St. and then to Milton Street, next to Awbury Arboretum in Germantown. In 1964, they moved to a house in Wyncote. “I was very upset about that,” Zilber said. “I wanted to go to Girls High School, but I was not allowed to go since we lived just outside the city. We went to Elkins Park Jr. High and Cheltenham High School instead.”
In 1979, Betty and Jack moved to an apartment in Wyncote Towers. They lived there until Betty moved to her last residence in Elkins Park seven years ago. “Growing up in Mt. Airy, we had lots of happy family get-togethers,” she said. “I was raised with togetherness. Mother's family was nearby on West Sharpnack Street. I had a warm, loving mom and dad. And there was no lunchroom at Henry School, so we always went home for lunch. I could not have gotten a better education anywhere than I got at Henry School.”
When she was 87, Perlmutter had a brush with death that changed her life. She was in a coma for two weeks and on life support at Boston General Hospital, where she stayed for four weeks.
“Since I recovered after the coma, I have been born again,” Perlmutter told us in the March interview. “There is so much joy and wonder in everything. I am so grateful that my family members want to spend time with me, not just tolerate me. I now can see things I never saw before.”
And she kept busy until right before her birthday, when her health began to fail.
“I go to exercise class, book club and arts and crafts,” she said. “Meals on Wheels brings books, and about five to 15 people discuss the books. They are large print books from Norristown Library. I sometimes put on a light in the middle of the night to read. I'm a big fan of the Eagles and Phillies. Last night I watched the entire 76ers game from 10 p.m. to 1 a.m. I said to the screen, 'Go to it, Maxey.'”
Her husband of 54 years, Jack, a World War II veteran, died in 2004 at age 82. In addition to Harriet, they had a son, Lee, a volunteer chief of the Willow Grove Fire Department, who died at 67 in 2019. Betty was predeceased by her siblings Benjamin and Naomi Druckman and survived by siblings Josh Matusow and Rene Presser. In addition to daughter Harriet, other survivors are grandchildren Emily Zilber, Benjamin Zilber, Rachel Zilber, Jonathan Zilber, Michael Perlmutter and Allie Richards, and seven great-grandchildren.
Funeral services were held on June 26 at Joseph Levine and Sons, 1002 W. Skippack Pike, Blue Bell.
Len Lear can be reached at lenlear@chestnuthilllocal.com
