‘This Is Like a Miracle’ : Good Samaritan Buys Condo for Widow

Last Wednesday was to have been the day that Bernice Petkere’s world fell apart.

Faced with the prospect of eviction from the West Hollywood apartment she has lived in for 11 years when investors bought the building to convert it to condominiums, she showed up for an appointment with one of the owners knowing that she was about to receive her walking papers.

Instead, Petkere, who is 86 and in poor health, got the surprise of her life.

The investor, Isaac Gamel, a Seattle real estate developer, told her to forget the $189,000 price tag that had threatened to separate her from the three-bedroom apartment at 1351 Crescent Heights Blvd.

No Eviction

“I’m personally buying your apartment and I want you to live in it for the rest of your life, if that’s what you want,” he told Petkere in front of a small crowd assembled in the lobby of the Granville Hotel, a West Hollywood landmark recently bought by one of his companies.

For a few seconds, the words didn’t seem to register. Then came tears, followed by a barely audible “God bless you,” from the woman who earlier said that the prospect of being uprooted had diminished her will to live.

“This is like a miracle, or a dream,” she said. “I hope someone doesn’t wake me up and tell me it isn’t happening.”

Gamel, the principal shareholder in Crescent Heights Inc., which purchased the 56-unit apartment building last year, said he decided to buy Petkere’s apartment and allow her to continue to lease it after reading of her plight in The Times a week ago.

“My mother’s 87, and my father’s 92 . . . (Petkere’s) story just touched me. Sometimes you feel like being a Good Samaritan,” he said.

Former Songwriter

Petkere, a former songwriter and widow of orchestra leader Freddie Berrens, had lost a home in a condominium conversion years ago, prompting her to move to the Crescent Heights building.

Last October, she was told she could buy her apartment or face being evicted by the eventual purchaser. But after learning the price, she responded that “they may as well be asking $5 million.”

The writer of dozens of songs, including the 1930s hits “Starlight” and “Lullaby of the Leaves,” she has been able to live modestly in her $900-per-month apartment thanks to Social Security benefits, an occasional royalty payment and financial help from a cousin.

On Wednesday, while waiting for Gamel to arrive, she immediately drew a crowd by playing a medley of tunes on a baby grand piano in the hotel lobby.

Later, after being reassured that she will be able to lease the apartment for the rest of her life, she told Gamel, “I hope you won’t be offended if I live a long time.”