Harriet R.

My mother was about 20 when WW II broke out. I don’t know much how she got there but her story always begins that she was in the Warsaw ghetto with her sister and husband. Her sister was taken away and my mother went into hiding with my father, who she would eventually marry after the war. My mother was brought up in a progressive household. She did not tell me a lot about her childhood as a whole. Two things she told me were how she learned to swim and how she would not wear a brace for scoliosis. She was a redhead and was 4’3”. She came up to my chest. My father was 5’3 inches so they looked right together. My mother always had a smile and was the epitome of a Jewish mother for all of her children. Everyone liked her.

Her advice to me: She only kept saying to me, "listen to your husband." That became a joke to my husband and I because listening but seemingly having a retort was how I reacted.

I love you, Mom.