Randi Petlakh received some astonishing news during a “Happy Mother’s Day” call from a relative in May.
Her husband’s cousin, Katya Bratslavsky, told Petlakh she had just bought a home in Boynton Beach.
“Which community?” asked Petlakh.
“Lakeridge Greens,” answered Bratslavsky.
What a coincidence, that was where Petlakh’s grandparents used to live.
“Which street?” It was the same street.
“Which house?” No. Impossible. Could it really be her grandparents’ longtime, beloved home?
It sure was.
“I was shaking, out of pure joy, because this house carries so much of my childhood inside its doors,” said Petlakh, 33, who lives in Bellmore, N.Y. “It feels like life has come full circle, so serendipitously.”
The home was formerly owned by Petlakh’s grandparents, Shirley and Milton Kushner, snowbirds from New Jersey who had bought it brand-new in 1996. It was filled with tender memories for Petlakh, who loved swimming in the neighborhood pool, eating with her grandparents at the kitchen table and sleeping on a cot in the second bedroom.
“I spent countless summers there growing up, making memories that would stay with me forever,” she said. “They had no idea how deeply it would root itself in our family’s history.”
Petlakh’s grandfather died in 2005. His wife stayed in the home for 20 more years until shortly before she died, at 99, in February 2025. Petlakh said her final goodbye to her grandmother in the house, as Shirley Kushner sat on her favorite chair in her bedroom, overlooking her beloved patio.
“I knew that this was the end of one of my childhood core memories,” Petlakh said.
Petlakh said her mother and her mother’s sister had trouble selling the house because it had fallen into disrepair.
Shirley Kushner suffered from Alzheimer’s disease and neither Kushner nor her aide was able to maintain it. Water damage and black mold were among several problems that hadn’t been addressed.
Petlakh’s mother and aunt sold the house to a contractor who fixed the problems and renovated it, taking down walls to create an open floor plan and adding a bedroom and a large granite counter in the kitchen.
The house sold quickly, and Petlakh hoped the future owners would love it as she did. A teacher and mother of a 3-year-old son, she decided it was time to move on.
When Bratslavsky delivered the stunning news, memories began to flood back for Petlakh.
Bratslavsky said she was equally emotional.
“It’s like when you’re a little kid and you find a treasure,” said Bratslavsky, an artist and mother of three who lives in Syracuse, N.Y.
Bratslavsky said she and her husband had been looking for a home in Boynton Beach to be closer to his parents. Her husband found the Lakeridge Greens house online and she said she loved it for its contemporary look, new appliances and big patio.
“You could tell someone put a lot of work into this house,” she said.
Bratslavsky discovered one remnant of the Kushner home had survived the renovation: a mezuzah, a little case containing biblical verses affixed to the doorposts of Jewish homes, at the front door.
She removed it and mailed it to Petlakh. She told her cousin to keep it as a family memento and to buy Bratslavsky a new one, which Petlakh has already done.
Petlakh placed her grandparents’ mezuzah in a box of family heirlooms she keeps in her attic. She traveled to the Bratslavskys’ Boynton Beach home in December, the first time she had been back since her grandmother died.
Bratslavsky said she has told the Petlakhs to visit any time and to treat the home like it’s theirs.
“I’m so deeply touched to be able to keep enjoying this beautiful home, not just as a visitor, but with family once again,” Petlakh said.
