Dying Woman's Last Request Fulfilled By Ohio Restaurant

CLEVELAND HEIGHTS, OH — Tommy's Restaurant — the iconic restaurant in the Coventry neighborhood — helped fulfill a dying woman's wish last week. The woman, Emily Pomeranz, grew up in Cleveland Heights before moving away and settling in the Washington, D.C. area.

Pomeranz was recently diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. As she approached the end of her life, a friend asked her if there was any food she would miss eating and Pomeranz quickly replied that she would miss milkshakes from Tommy's. Her friend, Sam Klein, immediately got to work getting that last milkshake to Pomeranz.

The initial logistics of getting the milkshake from Cleveland Heights to Arlington, Virginia, where Pomeranz was in hospice, were daunting. After all, how do you get an essentially cold beverage from one state to another without losing the chill?

The answer is dry ice, Fox 8 reports. Pierre's Ice Cream donated dry ice to the cause, and Tommy's owner Tommy Fello gathered packaging and paid a $123 overnight shipping bill to get the mocha milkshake from Cleveland Heights to a hospice room in Arlington. A photo of Pomeranz enjoying the milkshake, all smiles, was then sent to Fello.

Pomeranz passed away on Friday from pancreatic cancer, four days after the milkshake arrived in her hands. (To stay up to date on local stories, subscribe to the Patch Cleveland Heights newsletter. As news breaks and the story develops, you will be the first to receive updates from Patch.)

“She got a lot of momentum out of not only being able to enjoy something as special as a childhood nostalgic milkshake but the fact so many people were smiling about her,” Pomeranz's friend Sam Klein told Fox 8. “A lot of people have said 'this made me feel good' and I know Emily would love the fact that she's making people feel good even though she's not here with us anymore.”

Fello then told the Associated Press that giving is better than receiving, and the photo of Pomeranz proved that.

Klein also urged others to stop into Tommy's, order a milkshake and to tell Fello "this one's for Emily." Klein's full Facebook post urging other to go to Tommy's is below.

Photo from Pixabay