By Carrie James
"She became very involved after she retired from the hospital," said Shelly Lotenberg, friend and public-relations director at Nassau University Medical Center where Szimanski worked for many years.
At age 69, Szimanski was diagnosed with advanced cancer in December 2001. She spent her remaining days in her Salisbury home under hospice care and constant family attention. She died Jan. 26 in her home and was later cremated.
"It's so hard to fathom that she's gone," said close friend Norma Gonsalves, who echoed the thoughts of other community leaders such as Joe Parisi and Barry Rubinstein, as well as that of her family. "We just don't feel that she's passed away. I don't feel like there's been any closure," said Gonsalves.
Szimanski moved from California as a child to Carle Place, Long Island so that her father could work on the drainage system for what would become Kennedy Airport.
She married John Peter Szimanski Sr., and in 1951, the couple moved to the Salisbury area, where her husband still lives. She spent most of her life as a homemaker, raising four children. In the1980s, she joined what was then Nassau County Medical Center. Szimanski eventually became director of the hospital's volunteer auxiliary.
It was about this time, according to Gonsalves, that Szimanski saw she could get involved in the community, outside of her work at the hospital.
"She's been involved in the community a little over a decade," Gonsalves said. "From that position as director, I think that's when she saw that you could get involved outside of the hospital."
Szimanski's first steps into the civic arena, Gonsalves said, came when there was a mandate to expand the Nassau County Correctional Center. The federal government ordered the change. Szimanski joined forces with other outraged citizens to fight the expansion.
"We managed to get some positive things from it," Gonsalves said, even though they weren't able to stop the expansion. Szimanski later joined the jail's advisory committee.
The Community Association of Stewart Avenue, which Szimanski joined and later led, had been a big part of her life, said her son John Peter Szimanski Jr. As president, she helped rehabilitate tracts of Salisbury's green space, provide scholarships to graduating seniors, improve the safety of Salisbury Park Drive, among numerous other projects.
"It's become her baby," Gonsalves said. "She kept it going. She was the true leader of CASA. I told the new president, 'Keep it strong, because Beverlee kept it strong.'"
Other important undertakings for Szimanski were community policing, problem orientated policing, and the Citizens Police Academy, both of which she was active with. She graduated the 13-week academy with her husband.
Szimanski worked closely with officers from the Third Precinct who served the Salisbury area. The officers, including Officer Bruno Dellapina and Inspector Vincent Muscarnera, brought Szimanski a plaque thanking her for involvement shortly before her death.
"We found her to be a friend to the police department," Dellapina said. "She was very concerned about the community she lived in and very willing to work with us. She had a lot of drive."
The hospital had also planned to have a dinner in her honor Jan. 21, but Lotenberg said, unfortunately, it had to be canceled. Szimanski just got so weak so fast.
Both the hospital and the Council of East Meadow Civic Associations, of which Szimanski was a member, both plan to plant a tree in her honor. CASA has also discussed naming a scholarship after her.
To her friends, family and all who knew her, Szimanski truly dedicated her life to the East Meadow and Salisbury communities, helping make life better for those around her. Since her death, all who knew her said she was a good person who really cared about people.
She serves as a role model for her four children, John Peter Szimanski Jr., Leanne Calabrese, Jeanne Szimanski and Patricia Hearn, and her six grandchildren.
"She was a special lady, and there hasn't been a single person I have talked to that says she wasn't," Gonsalves said. "She was a role model to the end, and her family will carry it on."
In addition to her husband, children and grandchildren, Szimanski is also survived by her sister, Nancy Wilson, and her brother, James Hussin.
For those grieving over her death, Gonsalves recalls a talk the two had before Szimanski died.
"I was sitting here talking with her on the phone and she said to me, 'I have no regrets. There isn't anything left I want to do,'" Gonsalves recalled.
In lieu of flowers, contributions can be made in Szimanski's honor to the Community Association of Stewart Avenue scholarship fund, P.O. Box 10665, Westbury, NY 11590.
