Hudson Valley's Moms Of The Year

HUDSON VALLEY, NY — We asked you to tell us who the Mom of the Year is and you answered. Here are some of the responses we got. Happy Mother’s Day to all moms in the Hudson Valley and beyond.

• Mom’s name: Charlene Diehl
  
• Hometown: Cortlandt Manor
  
• Submitted by Heather Wood, her daughter

What makes my mom extra special? Anyone who has ever come into contact with my mother knows just how special she is.

My parents got divorced when I was about 4 years old. At that time my mom was left to raise my brother who was 5, me who was 4 and my sister who was 2. Here she was a single mom trying to raise three kids the best to her ability. My mom ran a deli down the street where she had us with her all the time. We worked by her side until we all left for college. Because of that, we all to this day have great morals, values and work ethics.

My mom deserves he spotlight because she is never in the spotlight. She always puts herself first. For example, my nephew was born with all these medical conditions. There was no way my sister could keep her job and bring him to his endless doctor appointments. So what did my mom do? She gave up her job to make sure my nephew got to all his doctor appointments, to be by his side during countless surgeries, while still being there for her own kids.

I am lucky to call Charlene Diehl my mother, my friend.

• Mom’s name: Marion Jean Ghosh
  
• Hometown: Red Oaks Mill
  
• Submitted by Samir Adams Ghosh, her son

My mom’s a 42-year Poughkeepsie resident, Red Oaks Mill, to be specific. Like many, she moved to Poughkeepsie for (actually, by) IBM…from New York City. Born and raised in Sydney, Australia, she was a pioneer female engineer in a culture infamously one of the most male chauvinistic in the world. She has incredible stories of being denied jobs, despite being top of her class, due to lack of ladies’ washrooms, or being officially notified by the electrical engineering professional association that due to the low number of women in the organization, all future correspondence would be addressed “Dear Sir.”

Seeking less discriminatory pastures, she left Down Under bound for Europe. On the way, she adventured on her own, a young attractive woman with Scottish-heritage coloring, through the middle east, including Khyber Pass circa 1960. She made her way to London, where she met my dad, a Bengali Indian aspiring journalist, and a rare man who would accept a career-oriented woman in those days. She brought me, her only son and child, into the world nine months (to the day) after their marriage.

Shortly after, she packed us up with very little money, no working visas, and a 3-month-old baby, literally in a cardboard box, onto a two-week ship voyage through a hurricane across the Atlantic to America so my dad could attend graduate journalism school at Columbia University. Consequently, we lived in Harlem in the ’60s-70s when the going was…”rough.”

The marriage didn’t survive the cultural differences and my father didn’t survive his smoking habit. My mom raised me single-handedly since I was 6 in a five-story Harlem brownstone walk-up.

To her credit, again without a working visa, she found and landed a coveted engineering job at IBM and made plenty of sacrifices to put me through private school since the public schools were pretty dangerous then.

In ’76, she made the right decision to get her teenage boy out of the city, and convinced IBM to bring her to Poughkeepsie. She managed to buy a house on her own, despite worries about maintaining it on her own. Yet, soon she would even don her overalls to work in the unfinished basement crawlspace when pipes or furnace needed attention. All while rearing a strong-headed teenager. She put me through a top engineering college, and was always upbeat and supportive throughout my life decisions.

She’d picked Poughkeepsie over Minneapolis to be close enough to NYC, which she loved. So, it was no surprise that she happened to be in NYC on 9/11 on her own and made her way back to Red Oaks Mill when everything was shut down. I remember a NYC cab driver commenting to me about the strong older woman taking charge of the sidewalk, not realizing he was talking about my mother. She’s now a proud and supportive grandmother who travels unbegrudgingly on her own to California to visit. She loves Poughkeepsie and Red Oaks Mill too much to leave.

My mom has never sought the spotlight for herself in any way. I know many of the sacrifices she’s made, but certainly not all. She’s served her community, driving for Meals on Wheels for 15 years, always dressing up for Halloween to entertain the local kids.

She was a better single parent than I think many dual parents could ever be. She exposed me, taught me to be independent, a critical thinker. I have her to thank for being comfortable in my own skin, a happy father and husband with a true respect for women.

I’m so proud of her as a person, a professional, a feminist, a trail blazer and a mother. One couldn’t ask for a better mom.

• Mom’s name: Kerry Lyons
  
• Hometown: Irvington
  
• Submitted by Liam Lyons, her son

I’m Liam Lyons and my mom is the best mom in the world for many reasons including the fact that she has skin cancer right now and she is still going to her work (full-time job) and managing the task of five kids (9-13) and two dogs. Everyone of us kids has sports that she has to find us rides to and get to every single one in some magical way that no one can understand. I love my mom and that is why I am nominating her for mom of the year.

• Mom’s name: Grace Zwisdak
  
• Hometown: Yonkers
  
• Submitted by Kim Zwisdak and Julie Vandak, her daughters

Our mom is extra special because she is just so kind, generous and caring. She does not hesitate to help anyone or anything in need. She has such a tremendous love for animals and really does so much for others without expecting anything in return. She goes above and beyond to do what she can to help those around her. She is fun, strong and never lets any obstacles or negativity bring her down. She raised us to be strong, independent and to know that we can achieve anything. She has a special place in her heart for animals, and even thought they can't talk or type we know they would also want to nominate her.

She deserves the spotlight because she is AWESOME! We want her to feel special and loved just how she makes us, her pets and our pets feel.

• Mom’s name: Karen Basdekis
  
• Hometown: Bedford Hills
  
• Submitted by Matthew Basdekis, her son

My mother is exceptional, selfless, beautiful, loving and sacrifices all she has, every day, for the benefit of all those around her. She battles a debilitating case of RA, and despite her disability, she takes care of my grandmother, who still lives in New Jersey, driving the three hours every weekend to shop for her, care for her in every imaginable way, from bathing to refilling bird feeders. My father and her husband of 38 years is currently in the ICU at Northern Westchester Hospital (has been there since April 11) with a very bad pneumonia, and she is currently on leave from work, sleeping on a chair bedside him and making sure he is getting the care he needs. My mother otherwise works as a remarkable special education teacher in the Katonah-Lewisboro school district, and is constantly improving and enriching the lives of her students and their families with day after day of educational and emotional breakthroughs. She maintains many relationships with students families long after they move on from elementary school because of how much of a positive impact she has had in advancing her students' education. She has been my hero forever, is an amazing mother, grandmother and role model.

• Mom’s name: Donna V. Bergin
  
• Hometown: New Rochelle
  
• Submitted by Christopher Bergin, her son

My mother is special indeed, and not just for raising five kids who are all successes at what they do in life. My mom has played many roles in my life. When I was a child, she was the ultimate Norman Rockwell mother — getting us ready for school, packing our sandwiches (and of course we all liked something different!) and carpooling us to school everyday. Afterwards she'd do almost every household chore and I cannot for the life of me ever remember her complaining or being tired. She always found the time to teach us important things...writing, a love for reading and music...she could play more than 10 instruments, wrote music and sang in two choirs and a barbershop women's group, so the house was always filled with folk, old school and church songs that I still remember the words to.

I looked forward to rainy days when we'd sit on the carpet in the living room and watch her play the piano or guitar, always teaching us new things, even wrestling us all across the room. We spent the long summers of our youth at Hudson Park and to this day my mom has a perennial tan. She had the patience to teach me how to swim and all about the creatures in the sea...she even volunteered at Wildcliff when it was open and let us feed the animals there.

From being the ubermom and teacher, she became the parent I talked to all through my teen years, which were stormy indeed! She never preached to me but always had good advice and was always willing to hear me out and help in any way she could.

It may sound strange, but my mother taught me how to be a man. She taught me values, respect for others and the environment, that volunteering was a good thing that all should do as often as they could. My neighbors saw this in me and when I delivered their papers I always got the biggest tips from the then 54 homes on my street, where I took the time to get to know each and every family. Because of my mom I could and still can talk to anyone, respecting their point of views and the differences between us.

According to her, anyone who works is to be respected and there was no difference between the men who hauled the trash away and the men in the firehouse — all were to be treated the same. Due to that open ear and heart, I made it through those teenaged years in one piece and a better person. My mom took the time to get to know my friends too and greeted them warmly when they came over or asked with concern when they didn't.

I got my license at 16 and she let me take her car to work at the A&P...she trusted in me and I cannot put into words just what effect that had on me but I never ever let her down...no DWIs, sppeding problems or even a parking ticket!

I left home to go to university in 1985 and despite the distance, my mother was still there for me, always curious about life away from home and how I fared...she was always there for me. After university I joined the US Peace Corps and flew to Poland, where I still am to this day. Despite having five other family members, it's my mom who keeps in touch the most. Despite being over 70 now, she learned how to Skype and always talks with my kids, who she will meet for the first time this summer, when I bring them and my Polish wife back to New Rochelle for their first time in the USA.

My mom retired from working at City Hall not long ago but has always remained active — she still sings in choirs, helps with the music and set-ups, walks down at Glenn Island and swims in her apartment's pool almost everyday of the season. I have never met a person who didn't like my mom or one that ever said a bad word about her — she is a people person, a New Rochelle for life person, a real queen of the sound.

Photos submitted.