CHICOPEE - A small fire led to a big surprise for 91-year-old Judy Mindell and her family.
And, now, thanks to the efforts of one of her grandchildren, Mindell, whose dreams of a career in the fashion industry came to an abrupt halt 73 years ago, will share her story with a new generation of clothing designers.
On Monday and Tuesday, the senior citizen will be saluted by the Fashion Institute of Technology, the school in New York City that she attended as a member of its first class in the 1944-1945 academic year.
Mindell will be given a tour of the institute's original quarters, followed by a tour of its current nine-building campus in the heart of Manhattan. To cap her weekend, she will address an audience of students and alumni. It will be an all-expenses paid trip, and she's thrilled at the opportunity.
"I will tell them my story, take them back to the days when their school had an enrollment of 35 - and I was one of them," she said.
This all came about because of a small fire, caused by an electrical problem in the Sixteen Acres home of Gary Mindell, one of Judy's sons. (He's well known for his career as basketball, and now volleyball, coach at Springfield's High School of Commerce). When workers went into the attic to check for possible smoke damage, they found a box, filled with fashion sketches of gowns, women's suits, hats and the like. The illustrations had frayed edges, but otherwise were in good condition.
Judy Mindell had originally stored the box of her artwork in the attic back in the 1950s, when the house belonged to her and her husband, Al. She now resides in Chicopee with her son David, his wife, Debbie, and their children Lisa and Jimmy.
"I had no idea that box was up there. It was a pleasant surprise," Gary Mindell says.
At the time of the box's discovery, one of her grandchildren, Samantha Moyal, was visiting from Far Rockaway, New York. "Gary and his wife, Jenny, brought the box of sketches to my grandma's place," Moyal recounts. "I took one look at them, and I was amazed at how good they were. I said, 'You did these, grandma? They're gorgeous.'"
So gorgeous, in fact, that Moyal wondered if folks at the Fashion Institute of Technology might want to see them. She wasted no time. She called the alumni office at the Fashion Institute and eventually got to speak with Sureme Laster Bey, manager of alumni engagement and giving.
"I told him what I had, and that my grandma wanted to donate her sketches to the school. He was very enthusiastic, and we arranged a meeting so I could bring the illustrations to his office when I got back to New York. I did that a few days later, and he loved what he saw - sketches from 73 years ago that were still in such good condition," Moyal says.
"He told me her illustrations were unique, that the school had no such artifacts from its first class, and that my grandma's work would be placed in its museum archives," she explains. "He also told me that he hoped he could have one to frame for a wall in his office. He especially liked her illustration of a suit done in leopardskin style."
Bey then asked if Mindell could come to New York, have a tour of the school and give a talk before the students and alumni. He also wanted to arrange for her to record a video about her year at FIT to become part of its archives. But he worried about her age. At 91, would she be able to make the trip? Would she be capable of giving a talk, doing a video?
"You don't know my grandma," Moyal remembers telling him. "She's very sharp."
The nonagenarian, who's the mother of six and grandmother of nine, still drives and stays busy, keeping on since the passing of her husband, Albert, in 2004. Her weekly duties include teaching residents at the Jewish Community Center in Longmeadow how to play mahjong (and she plays to win).
The fashion sketches from her attic were done at the dawning of the post-World War II era. Back then, she was Judy Kronick, a 17-year-old honors graduate of Christopher Columbus High School in the Bronx, New York. She was the grandchild of eastern European immigrants who had come through Ellis Island and settled in New York City.
Ahead of her acceptance at the Fashion Institute of Technology, a new school that would prepare students for work in the fashion industry, she was excited about what the future might hold for her.
FIT had a modest beginning, its classrooms occupying the top two floors of the Central High School of Needle Trades, on 24th Street between Seventh and Eighth avenues. The mission of that vocational high school, started in 1926, was to train its graduates for various jobs in New York's garment district.
Mindell had a grandfather in Springfield, who gave her money to cover the tuition for her first year. His help was crucial because her single mother (with three children) was living on welfare and unable to afford the cost of college.
High school had been easy for Judy. "I breezed through, getting everything done in three-and-a-half years," she remembers.
Not so at FIT. Her professors were very demanding, but she reveled in the challenge. They told her to get a sketch book and take it wherever she went. Draw, draw, draw, they said, and she did.
The Fashion Institute would later become part of the State University of New York, that state's system of public institutions of higher education. It's now a four-year college with an enrollment of 9,755.
In Mindell's day, it offered a two-year course. She excelled in the first year, but then came the bad news. Her grandfather told her he could not afford to pay for the second year. That meant she would have to leave school and find work because the family needed her support. So, after one year of dreaming and drawing, she dropped out and took a job as a switchboard operator.
"The one year I did have taught me a lot about organization," she says. "At FIT, you had to be organized to keep up with what was required. That helped me in later life. I've always been able to accomplish things because I was organized."
Her life changed in 1949, when she married Al Mindell, a World War II veteran whom she had met when visiting relatives in Springfield. They moved into an apartment on Locust Street in the city's South End neighborhood. As their family grew, they needed more space. That led them to the house in Sixteen Acres.
Along the way, she became a baseball fan.
"I never cared about the (New York) Yankees when I was growing up in The Bronx, not far from their stadium. But when I married Al, he loved the Red Sox, and I became a fan right along with him," she says.
As her family continued to grow, she continued to draw. "If you have the knack, you don't lose it," Mindell explains. "I would even sketch my kids while they were in highchairs."
After spending most of her time raising the children, Mindell decided in 1963 that it was time for her to go back to work. She started by selling magazine subscriptions, which she did for four years. Then, she decided to go into business, opening Baby Bargains, a consignment shop on Dickinson Street for children's clothing and baby equipment. She did that successfully for 12 years.
Last August, relatives and friends honored her with a gala party on her 90th birthday with Mayor Domenic J. Sarno there to proclaim "Judy Mindell Day."
Family has always been important to her, and she will have a large contingent of relatives traveling with her on her trip to FIT. Moyal will be among them.
"I would just like to make a point that too many people in my generation don't show enough appreciation for the elderly in their families," Moyal says. "In recent years, I have come to realize that my grandma is my best friend. I can go to her for advice. She is the family humorist, the family storyteller, just a bright, compassionate woman."
Garry Brown can be reached at geebrown1918@gmail.com.