[Congressional Record Volume 147, Number 86 (Wednesday, June 20, 2001)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1163]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




              HONORING LILLIAN TICK ON HER 100TH BIRTHDAY

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                         HON. GARY L. ACKERMAN

                              of new york

                    in the house of representatives

                        Wednesday, June 20, 2001

  Mr. ACKERMAN. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to ask all my colleagues to 
join me in honoring Lillian Tick on the occasion of her 100th Birthday.
  Lillian Tick was born Lillian Ostrega, the oldest of five children to 
Isadore (Ichimayer) and Frieda (Frima) Ostrega, in the city of Wyshkov, 
Poland on the third day of July 1901.
  Mr. Speaker, Isadore Ostrega left Poland for the United States in 
1908 to search for a better life for himself and his family. In 1912, 
after years of hard work, he was able to bring his wife, Frieda, to 
join him. When Frieda left Europe, it was Lillian who obtained and 
supplied food for her family. It took eight years before Lillian's 
parents were finally able to save enough money to bring their children 
to America. Lillian, her three brothers--Louis, David and Hyman--and 
her sister, Dora, all arrived at Ellis Island in 1920.
  Lillian eventually met and married Morris Tick, a lansman emigre from 
Poland. They had three children: Irving, who passed away in 1988, 
Theodore (Ted) and Natalie.
  Mr. Speaker, Lillian Tick is affectionately called Mama Lilly by all 
who know her and cherish her. Mama Lily's many friends and admirers 
include Rabbi Dr. H. Joseph Simckes, and Cantor Sol Zim and the other 
congregants and employees of the Hollis Hills Jewish Center, where she 
is nearly a permanent fixture.
  Mama Lily is a four-foot-nine-inch bundle of energy. To this day, she 
still cleans and dusts to the level of her own height, maintains her 
own room, and insists on doing the dishes each evening, as well as the 
family ironing, despite having fractured both hips and walking with the 
aid of a quadruped cane.
  Mama Lilly reads the newspapers everyday, and attends Shabbat and 
High Holiday services regularly. When she is able, she observes the 
various Yahrtzeit memorials in honor of her dear departed.
  Mr. Speaker, if you ask Mama Lilly how she feels, the response is 
invariably, ``I'm fine.'' When you meet Lillian Tick for the first 
time, you find a universal mother and grandmother. From then on you 
will always address her as, and you will always have, a ``Mama Lilly.''
  The Hollis Hills Jewish Center is celebrating Lillian's 100th 
Birthday on June 23, 2001, so that all of Mama's many friends can share 
in this joyful occasion. She is beloved by all; her search for a new 
and better life in America, her independent spirit, and her life of 
hard work is the essence of our great nation: a land of immigrants 
yearning to breathe free.
  Mr. Speaker, I ask all my colleagues in the House of Representatives 
to rise and join me now in honoring the 100th Birthday of Lillian Tick, 
who has touched the lives of so many people during her glorious years 
with us.

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