Reprinted from GREAT NECK RECORD 12-29-2011
AN OLD STORY BUT A FAIRYTALE NONETHELESS
Great Neck Resident, almost 99, takes a bride
by Susan Astor
When we hear that an older couple has fallen in love and gotten married, there is a
special quality to the joy we experience. After all, these are not two passionate
young people rushing off to the altar in the heat of the moment; these are two very
mature adults deciding, with all they know about the unpredictability of life, to
commit to physical and spiritual bonding. When one of the newlyweds is about to
turn 99, our joy borders on awe: we are witness to a death-defying miracle. Eric
Pomerance will turn 99 in March; his bride, Diane, is 59. For them, age is
inconsequential. They are clearly soul mates. Having spent a little time with them
recently in their lovely Great Neck home, I can report that the love and admiration
between the two is palpable.
The Pomerances were married on October 9 in the small town of Cairo, upstate NY
in a gazebo on Main Street near the Town Hall. Diane and Eric have been together
six and a half years, long enough to be sure they are completely compatible. They
originally met by accident at a a garden party/film opening, a party which, they
both recount, Eric “crashed.” Once introduced, they spent hours and hours talking,
realizing how much they had in common. They were both single and both
activists. They had both marched on Washington to protest the Vietnam war.
They had both lived and worked in other countries.
Diane says of her husband that “he is always trying to change things and improve
them.” In this, he has been extraordinarily successful. He forced the
discontinuance of the use of a dangerous solvent in manufacturing the Norden
Bomb Sight on which he worked during WWII. In the 1950s, he founded the
Great Neck branch of SANE (Committee for a SANE Nuclear Policy). More
recently, Eric was instrumental in having leaf blower usage banned during the
summer in several Villages of Great Neck; he even fought for and won his right to
ride his bicycle to the Great Neck train station and leave it there while he was in
Manhattan (bike racks have now been installed).
Diane’s has fought and won many of her own battles for social justice, both as a
social worker/psychotherapist (MSW) and an administrator. She worked for the
Society of Prevention of Cruelty to Children (SPCC), and established the first free-

standing outpatient clinic for families troubled by alcohol and drug abuse. Among
her many impressive credentials, she was the executive director of Mental Health
& Education for Americans in Cairo, Egypt and established a drug & alcohol rehab
center for expatriates in Taipei, Taiwan. For 12 years she was the associate
director of Future Voters of America, organizing public school social studies
curricula around children’s issues, preparing youngsters to actively participate in
the democratic process.
Eric doesn’t have to worry about keeping up. Since hopping a ship to Argentina
when he was 16, he has been on the go-- employed as a baker on shipboard, a
maintenance manager in Queens, an architectural assistant in Manhattan, a
cameraman in in an animation studio in Holland. Since retirement, he has worked
as a volunteer at Sands Pt. Preserve restoration shop, carving two of the horses on
their carousel. He played tennis until three years ago and still plays the clarinet.
A one-man show of his watercolors will open on December 7 at the Art Gallery at
Queensborough Community College.
Life is full for the Pomerances. They enjoy watching old movies together, going to
art galleries and museums, visiting with loved ones, wandering around
Steppingstone Park and, most of all, having long, meaningful conversations. When
I asked what they are doing right now, the answer was a simple one:
“honeymooning.”