Wendy Lyn Berman-Tastrom of Rocky Point: Loved Corvettes

Wendy Lyn Berman-Tastrom liked Corvettes and gardening. Credit: Rebecca Breitel
Wendy Lyn Berman-Tastrom had a thing for Corvettes.
It was a passion she passed down to her children, according to her older daughter, Rebecca Breitel, who drives a Corvette of her own.
“If there were two things my mother was known for, it was her Corvette, and gardening,’’ said Breitel, of Rocky Point.
Breitel said her mother had a 1966 Corvette convertible, which she managed to steer with long, red fingernails. When asked how her mother was able to keep those nails intact while also being an active gardener, she laughed and said: “She took care of herself."
Berman-Tastrom, of Rocky Point, died on April 23, from complications due to the coronavirus, her daughter said. She was 74.
She was born on Oct. 19, 1945, in Kew Gardens but she grew up in New Rochelle and graduated from New Rochelle High School. She attended Rider College (now Rider University), in Lawrenceville Township, New Jersey, but dropped out to work for her father.
Eventually, she received a Certification in Addiction Counseling from Pace University, and she worked as an alcohol and substance abuse counselor for Maryhaven Center of Hope in Riverhead, until her retirement in 2011.

Wendy Lyn Berman-Tastrom in 1966 with her Corvette. Credit: Rebecca Breitel
Berman-Tastrom knew of personal struggles. She had two husbands predecease her, and was a single mother raising two young daughters when she met her third husband, Victor Tastrom, at an Al-Anon meeting in 1985. That relationship lasted 35 years, though they did not wed until 2009, after Berman-Tastrom finally agreed to get married one more time.
Victor Tastrom, of Rocky Point, said he and his wife took vacations in Mexico and enjoyed each other's company.
“We danced in the Macy’s Tap Dance Mania,’’ he said. “There were 5,600 of us dancing on 34th Street … It was a fun thing. We did a lot of fun things.’’
Berman-Tastrom loved animals, liked to help the underprivileged, and did charitable work for the Vietnam Veterans of Suffolk County, her family said.
“She was a woman who loved helping other people,’’ Breitel said of her mother.
Besides her husband and daughter, Berman-Tastrom is survived by a second daughter, Alison Berman, of Rocky Point, and a sister, Barbara Bring, of Lake Worth Beach, Florida. She was buried on May 1, at Calverton National Cemetery. The family plans to have a memorial ceremony at a later date.