In addition to her volunteer work, Adele was a source of emotional support for her brothers and sisters. As Paul put it:

 “Anybody who had a problem, no matter who it was, whoever needed help, my mother was always there. It wasn’t a question. It was an absolute commitment.”

Adele enjoyed hosting engagement parties for her sisters, and later for her nieces and nephews. Below are photographs from the party she gave to celebrate the engagement of her sister Molly Korff to Abe Weinberg.

(Left) Left to right: Adele Korff Gass, Nesha Korff, Pauline (Polly) Korff, Betty Korff, Etta Korff, Molly, Abe, Abe’s mother (?), Abe’s sister (?). Adele probably did most of the cooking. (Right) Front, left to right: Polly Korff, Abe Weinberg, Molly Korff, back: ?, 2nd row: Etta Korff, ?, perhaps Walter Berkowitz’s mother (?), ?, Nesha Korff, standing in back: Betty Korff and Adele.

In 1975, after Adele’s sister Pauline (Polly) Kerber suffered a catastrophic stroke at age 45, Adele was there to help with the long recovery. The stroke had rendered Polly aphasic and paralyzed on the right side but intellectually intact. She was able to teach herself how to walk with a cane but never recovered the ability to speak clearly again. Polly’s husband, Sidney, recalled how good Adele was to Polly:

“Adele was returning from Israel on the day that Polly had the cerebral hemorrhage and she came directly from the airport to the intensive care unit at Mass General Hospital to be with us. She hardly ever left the hospital over the next three or four months while Polly was in a coma even though we had special duty nurses around the clock. Adele would come at 8:00 in the morning and sit with Polly and help the nurses take care of her all during that period.

“When Polly came home from the hospital, Adele was right there to help with the therapy and she was a great help to me. We had three shifts of nurses every day. When for one reason or another the nurses weren't able to come to the house, Adele would come—in many instances in bad weather, even raging snowstorms—to enable me to go to work. Our medical insurance picked up the tab for the hospital expenses but they did not cover the expense of private duty nurses at home and we didn't qualify for government assistance such as Social Security disability insurance.

“In the spring of 1978, Polly (in a wheel chair), Adele, and I traveled down to Florida to see Jordan in spring baseball training for Haverford College. We had great fun and I never once heard Adele complain about the hard work she had to do in taking caring of Polly either when we went on trips or when we were at home.

Her sister, Betty Berkowitz described Adele as a “kind of matriarch, the glue that held the family together.”

     
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