Bridie Goldstein was an active woman whose energy level far surpassed those younger than she was, her family said. After a birthday party Sunday for her son, Jeff, she characteristically turned down an offer for a ride home, determined to jog the mile to her house in the cold.

She was struck and killed on Broadway, a block from her Massapequa home, when a driver lost control of his car and swerved onto the sidewalk.

Yesterday Goldstein's family mourned her death, recalling a woman who possessed a way of being that was fearless, generous and loud with laughter.

Goldstein, 57, a nursing supervisor at St. Mary's Children and Family Services in Syosset, worked 10-hour days and still seemed to always have time to take her grandchildren on "adventures," to jog, to play soccer and tend to sick friends, family members said.

"She was a mother, she was a father and she was a friend," said her son, Peter Goldstein, 25, a computer programmer who lived with his mother. "She was everything and she made sure everything was perfect in the end."

Goldstein was born to a large Irish family in Ballyhaunis, in County Mayo, Ireland, said another son, Bob Goldstein. She came to the United States at 17, following her sister and brother. Goldstein initially worked in Lynbrook and Baldwin, where she would eventually meet her husband, Wesley Goldstein.

Goldstein completed a nursing degree while she and her husband raised three sons - Peter, Bob, 35, and Jeff, 37, of Massapequa. When Peter was a teenager, the couple divorced. If she felt scared or worried about her new situation, she never let it show, Peter Goldstein said.

Bob Goldstein, a biolo gy profe ssor at the Univer sity of North Car olina at Ch apel Hill, described his mother as someone to whom others naturally gravitated.

He recalled a vacation last year, when his mother met him and his wife in Puerta Vallarta, Mexico, at the tail end of a biology conference. She danced and socialized with more verve than those who were younger. On the last day, his mother was already making arrangements to meet her new friends at the conference next year, which was scheduled for this March.

Despite being diagnosed with multiple sclerosis a few years ago, Goldstein's hobbies included jogging and playing in an over-40 soccer league for a team called The Hot Flashes. Despite her demanding schedule at St. Mary's, she always reserved Fridays for her two young granddaughters.

"The world lost such a good spirit," said her niece, Colleen Irwin, 37.

In addition to her sons, Goldstein is survived by her mother, Mary Gallagher of Ballyhaunis, four sisters and two brothers.

Visiting hours will be 2 to 4:30 p.m. and 7 to 9:30 p.m. at the Massapequa Funeral Home in Massapequa Park. A funeral Mass will be said Thursday at 9:45 a.m. at Maria Regina Church in Seaford.