Renate Ayerst wasn’t born into some longtime Western New York family, in which the triumphs and frustrations of the Buffalo Bills are intertwined with your molecules from the moment you toddle.
No, Renate – pronounced “Renata” – didn’t settle in Buffalo until she was about 40. Her life with her husband David and their kids took them from greater New York City to Syracuse and Michigan and finally to this city that truly became her home.
They arrived in the mid-1980s. Before long, she and her husband were running an ancient tavern on Howard Street. They called it “Daren’s,” which basically is a shorter way to say “David and Renate’s.”
Almost immediately – based on how Renate seemed to connect emotionally with anyone who walked inside – the couple meshed into the tapestry of Broadway-Fillmore, a bond with a powerful result:
Renate simply fell in love with Buffalo – and part of that meant falling hopelessly for the Bills.
In September, she was hospitalized with pulmonary fibrosis. She died at age 79 on Oct. 1, and her sons, Michael and David, say her last breath was in close proximity to the end of Buffalo’s 48-20 victory that day over a fierce rival, Miami.
“My mother loved them because of what they did for people, the way they brought everyone together,” the younger David said of the Bills.
If you agree neighborhoods endure and rise because of heart and will, the chance encounter with Loretta…
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