This is a photo of my Great-Grandmother, Minnie Perlman Sheresefsky and her oldest daughter Rose Perlman. Roses's younger half-brother was my Grandfather, Israel Schreff. They are standing in front of a paint store owned by Minnie that was located on York Street in Brooklyn. She was a bold, strong woman who owned a business usually dominated by men, where she was was able to use the profits to buy property, jewelry and antiques. She died in 1930, when my father and his brother were 5 and 6 years old. When they both married in the early 1950's, thye were each given $1,000.00 held in trust from Minnie. She had saved that money from the return of paint can covers, for which she received one cent each. I recently found an unsigned copy of her Last Will and Testament, written 9 years before her death. In it she leaves money to her two children to be split equally, leaves $5.00 to another son, $100.00 to a jewish aid society and $100.00 to her rabbi to pray for her, with the contingency that he still gets the money even if he does not pray for her. I am named for this strong willed, headstrong, trailblazing woman and it is quite a task to live up to her accomplishments!

– Mindy Schreff

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