State troopers in the Riverside barracks wanted to find a special way to wish a special lady a happy 91st birthday during this time of isolation and social distancing. But when they drove past Adele Ambrose’s Ludlam Avenue home last Tuesday, lights flashing, sirens blaring, they didn’t imagine they’d be featured in a video that would go viral on social media.
The emotional reaction of the Flanders woman, who lost her vision to a massive stroke last year, was captured on video by her niece, Mary Lou Ambrose. The video, shot from outside Ambrose’s home, shows the elderly woman’s expression as she begins to understand what’s going on outside her home and her tears start to flow. The parade of State Police vehicles is visible in reflection of a window. It was a perfect angle.
A trooper in the Riverside barracks sent the video to the State Police communications office in Albany. It was posted to the agency’s Facebook page, where it was picked up by CNN. As of this afternoon, it’s been shared more than 1,600 times, garnering more than 236,000 views.
This isn’t the first time the troopers have gotten together to wish Adele a happy birthday. They’ve been to her house to sing “Happy Birthday” to her in past years.
The local trooper barracks has a special relationship with Adele Ambrose.
She cooked a full Thanksgiving dinner for the troopers for 40 years — a tradition she started to show her appreciation for their service.
Every Thanksgiving, she’d deliver the holiday dinner to the old barracks on Flanders Road in Hampton Bays — turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, “the works,” her daughter Tracy Wanat said.
Cooking — and most especially, feeding people — is Adele’s passion, family members agreed.
“To my mom, it’s how you show your love for someone,” Dawn Ambrose said.
She cooked dinner every day until she was 88 years old.
Adele and her husband “Big John” developed a relationship with the troopers through their involvement with the REACT CB club, which acted as something of a citizen’s volunteer dispatch organization back in the heyday of citizens band radio.
But after her husband died, thieves dismantled and stole the engine out of a race car in the garage of their home.
“They watched the house carefully and knew we weren’t home on Thursday nights,” Wanat said. “My mom had Polish Town Civic Association meetings and I had bowling league,” she said. “They were in the garage for weeks.”
One State Police investigator worked “day and night to get every bit of that race car back,” Wanat said — and bring the thieves to justice.
The Thanksgiving dinners were Adele’s way of saying thanks to the troopers, Wanat said.
And their Happy Birthday parade last week was their way of saying thanks to Adele.
As she listened to the sirens chirping and howling a special “Happy Birthday” salute, Adele kept asking, “All for me? All for me? She’s a very modest woman.” When it was over, Adele toasted the troopers with a glass of O’Doul’s, Wanat said.
Adele’s extended family gathered at her home last Tuesday to wish her a Happy Birthday — though the coronavirus pandemic forced them to do it through the barrier of a glass window. Adele has three home aides, who care for her around the clock. Her son Michael moved in with his mom at the start of the outbreak and has isolated with her.
Her daughter Dawn, who works as a cleaner at the Riverside barracks, coordinated the birthday parade.
“My mom’s the ace,” Dawn Ambrose said. “She’s the queen of queens.”
Adele, who raised a family of six children — and today has 16 grandchildren and five great-grandchildren — was always involved in the community. A past-president of the Polish Town Civic Association, Adele worked tirelessly on the annual summer street fair.
She was in charge of all the vendors, Wanat said. “She was a real firecracker.”
The daughter of Polish immigrants, Adele Arnister was born in Water Mill. She is the lone survivor of the original pioneers who built Riverhead Raceway, Wanat said. “Big John” raced there and Adele ran the concession. She also ran a concession stand at the Westhampton Speedway, where “she was known for her sausage and peppers,” Wanat said.
Today, the family matriarch “lives in the moment,” her daughter said. Her short-term memory has suffered, along with her eyesight.
Right now, the family is “just praying she gets past this COVID,” she said.
“It’s hard,” Wanat said. “It’s been like eight weeks. I just want to give my mother a hug.”
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