The Real Deal New York

From the May issue: It’s hard to imagine coping with the loss of a teenage child, but Halstead Property associate broker Rena Goldstein dealt with that and other tragedies since her son’s death in 1988. Her son Scott Goldstein was diagnosed at age 4 with incurable central nervous system disease, a neurological problem affecting his brain, and was given six months to live. Instead, he lived until age 15 but faced numerous hospitalizations, operations, partial paralysis and intermittent blindness. As if that wasn’t the worst one could possibly imagine, Goldstein’s other son was developmentally delayed and her husband also became ill, prompting her to enter the real estate industry after 30 years as a homemaker, with a small side business designing jewelry. Goldstein went from not knowing how to turn on a computer to being a successful associate broker with a $14 million listing at the Plaza.