Rebecca

- Bob Wendelken

Rebecca Czajkowski is the middle child of Ray and Traci, who lived next door to us for seven years. She was born when they lived here. Ray is the chief building engineer for a forty-plus-story office building on Broadway and 41st Street. Traci is a New York City Police Department narcotics detective. They're about the same age as Trish.

The middle child in most families seems to be the independent one, often outspoken and frequently in trouble because these qualities. Jo Ann was one. She displayed these qualities and so has 'Becca, from her earliest days. Somehow, she and Rebecca just clicked immediately. The chemistry was there from day one, it seems.

There is a school behind our house and its classes go only as far as the fourth grade. Stephanie (the oldest of the kids next door) attended that school. Each day, the live-in nanny from next door (Trina) walked Stephanie around the corner to school. From probably age two, Rebecca carefully watched to see when Trina was slightly less attentive. She'd then break away, run up our driveway, ring the bell a hundred or so times and bang on the door with her tiny hands. She always had so much fun visiting with us that she called for Jo Ann almost every day. She'd come in and just hang out. Jo would put makeup on her, let her help with preparing meals or other things around the house or take her into the back yard and let her help plant Jo gardens - of flowers of vegetables.

Stephanie, Rebecca, and Tyler

The girls, being older, hung out all the time. Every day, they'd visit. They knew we loved to dance and decided that they'd dance, too. Soon, they decided on a CD they really liked. It's a disco album, so Jo and I also loved it. Every time they showed up, we pretty much had to stop what we were doing, so we could dance with Steph and 'Becca. What a joy that was! The kids are tall for their ages, and wanted me to pick them up so we could see each others' faces as Jo Ann and I could when we danced.

We have an in-ground pool and Ray & Traci's family spent lots of time here during the warm months. Jo Ann scoured the weekend newspapers and every Saturday and Sunday, we'd be out, looking for toys for the kids to use in the pool. We had a huge inflatable whale which the kids loved. We had lots of floats, goggles, silly sunglasses, toys and games of all description. The children couldn't wait to see the next floating toys. We also named them. We named one

Little Rebecca, Stephanie and Tyler

six-plus foot-long critter Al "O'gator and another one Croc O'Dile ('cause I'm Irish). We tried to put silly names onto as many of these floating character toys as possible. Rebecca loved working in Jo's gardens with her and loved to water, even though we have an in-ground sprinkler system. She'd take a two-gallon watering pail, fill it with pool water and sprinkle some of Jo Ann's flower beds. Now we all know that chlorine isn't the ideal for watering flowers, but everything 'Becca did was pretty much okay with us especially Jo. Water weighs a little over eight pounds per gallon, so that meant that Rebecca was scooping about sixteen pounds of water out of the pool and lifting it, when sometimes I'm not sure she weighed that much herself.

If Jo got a floating mattress, sun hat and sunglasses and decided to just float for a while and relax, guess who else did. Those two have always been like the Dynamic Duo. I often thought of them as Pete and Repeat. Somehow, in her very earliest understanding, Rebecca always knew that she was safe with Jo Ann. When she got into trouble (a lot!). She always knew that Jo Ann would protect her with her very life. She was exactly right, too.