Naomi Ruth Axelrod died on March 6, 2025 at the Lily House in Wellfleet after a five-year struggle with Parkinson’s disease. She was 85.
The daughter of Solomon Axelrod, a Russian immigrant, and Pauline Wechter, an Austrian immigrant, Naomi was born on Oct. 8, 1939 in New York City, where Sol worked as an embroiderer and tailor. When Sol died, Pauline married Myer Karesky of Dorchester, which became Naomi’s home.
Myer, who had emigrated from Russia in 1903, was a garment presser who became one of the leaders of the International Ladies Garment Workers Union Pressers Local 12 in Boston; he served as a union organizer and business agent. As a teenager, Naomi worked for a time in the Boston office doing clerical work.
Naomi married David Brent Gernes, a self-taught engineer, and had two children, Todd in 1962 and Jennifer in 1966. She was a homemaker in Cambridge and Lexington who was profoundly affected by the second-wave feminism of the 1970s, particularly the consciousness-raising movement then simmering in suburban America.
In the spirit of the times, even as she and David were divorcing, they bought a Victorian house in Watertown and established a communal cooperative, with the men living upstairs and the women downstairs. Members of the group vacationed in Sladeville on the Pamet River in Truro, which was the beginning of Naomi’s long relationship to the Outer Cape.
After the divorce, Naomi went back to school, earning a bachelor’s degree in psychology from UMass Boston in 1980, with a minor in women’s studies. In 1984, she completed a master’s degree in social work at Boston University.
Naomi built a successful private practice in family therapy and helping those afflicted by addiction. She met Diane Greene, a psychologist who specialized in helping abused children, and by 1995 they had become life partners, working in Watertown and spending vacations in Truro, where Diane owned property. They summered in Truro and Provincetown before retiring in Wellfleet in 2005.
As a practitioner, friend, partner, and mother, said her son, Todd, “she was known for her wisdom, empathy, and her ability to create trust and lasting bonds.” She was also an innovative cook, meticulous housekeeper, and a miracle worker with houseplants and kitchen gardens, he said.
Naomi loved books, film, and music of all kinds. She especially relished news and public affairs programs on television, along with painting in watercolor and acrylic, entertaining, and volunteering with local arts organizations, including Wellfleet Preservation Hall and the Payomet Performing Arts Center.
Naomi spent her final weeks at the Lily House. The ethos there, Todd said, is communal, in the spirit of his mother’s idealism. Though non-religious, the facility offers a “closing ritual — a shrouding ceremony” that Todd described as “very moving.”
Naomi is survived by her son, Todd Gernes, and his wife, Linda, of Holliston, and their son, Corey, of Boca Raton, Fla.; her daughter, Jennifer Gernes of Watertown; her granddaughter, Ariel Tatsch, and husband Justin, and her great-granddaughter, Abigail Tatsch, of Wilbraham; and her partner, Diane Greene of Wellfleet, in addition to an extended family and close network of friends.
In lieu of flowers, donations in Naomi’s memory can be made to the Lily House.
