Sylvia & Irving Spillman Weltchek
In 1941, less than eight years after her own departure from the Home, Estelle Spillman Weltchek admitted her two children (Sylvia, 4, and Irving, 6) to the same institution in which she had spent three years. Separated from her first husband, Estelle was unable to care for her children alone.
In 1945, Sylvia and Irving returned to their mother, who had relocated to Detroit, Michigan.
In this 1942 photo, “Uncle” Harry Ginsburg reads to Home kids Ethel Miron (left), Sylvia Spillman (right), and Herbert Freedman (top of chair), while Jean Segal Avegno (a former Home resident and Ginsburg’s secretary) stands at rear. Courtesy JCRS.
According to her 2025 obituary, Sylvia married and had two children. In 1962, she moved to Los Angeles where she worked as a nurse in the operating room at Cedars Sinai and later assisted Dr. Kurt Wagner, a plastic surgeon. Sylvia served as a private duty nurse until she retired at age 74. Sylvia Spillman Kotin died at age 88.
Undated photo of Sylvia Spillman Kotin from her 2025 obituary.
According to the 1950 census, Irving was then living in New York with his father, Julius Weltchek. In 1966, Irvin (as he was then known) married Carolyn Schmidt. The marriage, which produced a son, ended in divorce. Irvin Weltchek died in Toledo, Ohio in 1984.
Irvin Weltchek, from Ancestry.com