They’re pawsitively wonderful.
A senior couple married for nearly 70 years has become the delight of Nassau County, with 20 years of bringing joy to local children, most recently with the assistance of their adorable dog, Daisy.
Vic and Judie Horowitz, 92 and 88, of Oceanside, have been regular assistants at Mount Sinai’s Survivorship in Brothers and Sisters, or SIBSPlace, over the past two decades.
They steal the show at the Rockville Center facility, which cares for children whose families are fighting serious illnesses like cancer.
“We’ve become like their grandparents,” Judie, a former artist, told The Post. “Sometimes I bump into them in the supermarket, and we stand there hugging each other.”
The weekly volunteers know what a simple smile can do for these kids.
Vic and Judie dress up in Halloween costumes, play games, tell stories of their younger days, help with homework, and do tons more behind-the-scenes to light up the faces at SIBSPlace.
Vic even happily runs trash bags to a dumpster out back, and Judie hand-knits a blanket for every child’s ailing family member.
“Basically, we’ve been fortunate and blessed in our lives,” Vic told The Post. ‘When we retired, we felt that we were obligated to give something back — and we had the time to do it.”
Doggone amazing
However, nothing makes the children more enthusiastic than monthly visits from Daisy, a Labradoodle the Horowitzes trained as a therapy dog to engage with local youth.
The long married duo also take her to an East Rockaway elementary school and have students read to Daisy as a way to have them feel more comfortable in developing verbal skills.
“They get more excited to see her than us,” Vic, who used to work in industrial electronics and lighting, joked. The pooch is so popular that she has her own business cards, bookmarks, and is featured on a mural on the outside of SIBSPlace.
When Daisy joins the group at SIBSPlace, Vic will start with a few simple tricks she was taught, like moving her right or left paw on command or bouncing around a tiny basketball.
Then, the real fun begins.
Vic and Judie will put a red and green button on the floor and have the kids ask Daisy yes-or-no questions.
The good girl then dashes to the corresponding color and gets it right an impeccably amount of time, causing cheers and cheek-to-cheek smiles.
“When I see Daisy, I’m speechless,” young Joseph Maraia, 9, who has gotten to know her over about five years, told The Post.
Maraia, a big fan of the power couple, feels that doing arts and crafts with Judie and playing foosball with Vic makes his day.
The boy added that things like that make it more comfortable to talk about his feelings.
Laz Foster, 12, another boy in the program said he especially loves the conversations he has with Vic and Judie.
“And they always teach us new things,” he added.
SIBSPlace executive director Joanna Formont didn’t mince words by saying, “Vic and Judie are like family here.”
“When we see alumni of the program the first the they ask is ‘how are Vic and Judie?’” she told The Post.
Formont also said she finds it delightful for the children to see firsthand what a life of love and dedication of 67 years looks like. As fate would have it, the happy couple first met in the 1950s while on a blind date with two other people.
“Turns out, we liked each other better,” said Judie.
While it does their hearts good to know they are making a difference, the pair want to see more people — young and old — getting involved in local causes and showing love to those who need it.
“We don’t like being an uncommon story,” said Vic.
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