Impactful Day

That was my word of the day yesterday - impactful! One of my friends called it an "Oprah Moment" - funny! Anyway, there is a family at our school - daughter in highschool, with a Mother that is a Holocaust Survivor. This woman came from Israel to our school to speak with the 10th grade students as they are learning WWII history right now. She also spoke to any parents that wanted to come -- there were about 20 of us in the room.

She is almost 82 and has written a book about her life journey called Life is a Gift. I purchased the book and already began reading it. She leads a 'quiet' life she says and hid what happened to her for decades. She told us after that she was nervous and doesn't usually do 'talks' - she was SO eloquant, that I was sure she did this on a speaking circuit.

Back up a little, I have been reading a book called War and Rememberance by Herman Wouk - Eric suggested I read it. It is a story about WWII - not just when the USA entered it, but when it began. It follows a fictional US miliary family - so for me, it makes learning the history more real and 'fun'. I have really enjoyed learning a lot more, specificalliy because we live in Austria now. I have friends that have visited concentration camps near Prague, in Poland etc.. I have Jewish friends that live here and we talk about what it feels like to live in a place where Jewish people were persecuted and killed. I have walked around the Jewish Quarter here and the Jewish Memorial and have seen the only standing Synogogue in Vienna from the war. (It was saved because non-Jewish residents lived connected to it on a city street) I say all this to say, I am living 'closer' to it now, so it has taken on more meaning than when I lived in the USA.

So back to the speaker, her story was awe-inspiring, tragic, magical in ways, and most certainly impactful. She finished and I felt like my life had just been impacted in an important way. She was given life 3 times - once when she was born in Berlin 3 months premature in 1928 and they wrapped her up and put her in a box to bury. She screamed out to let them know she wasn't dead. The 2nd when was 9 and 1/2 she was rescued after 2 brutal weeks (physical, emotional, sexual abuse) in an underground cellar. She was captured and abused by her brother's best friends - young neo natzi's trying to impress Hitler. The third was when she was the last boat out of Germany on the "Kindertransport" to be adopted by a London family. Her parents were killed/burned at Auschwitz and she doesn't have record of her brother, but he was not adopted and assumed killed.

Her lesson was - we are all Given the gift of Life - use it to it's fullest and if you see an injustice happening use your voice. This beautiful woman went through all of this and still has this message... amazing. I truly wish you all could have listened to her and met her. There is so much more to the story - if you want to borrow it, let me know!

A few other quick notes:
--The kids are having a fun week with Spirit Week. Evan brought this idea to his school and got it approved and planned it all out with a few friends, so we were proud of him!

--Today was also the fun run at school to raise money for Japan and Julia ran 13 laps around!! This is the girl that would say "Hold Me" after taking 10 steps a year ago. Moving here has changed her - we walk SO much more here - walk everywhere!

--We had a WONDERFUL trip to Garmische Germany to meet up with Christy (my sister in law) and her family. The kids all had so much fun, I missed Christy so much so it was so great to see her, AND I brought back great American stuff from the Commissary! :)

-- Eric is recovering nicely from his hernia surgery. He is biking again and doing some other things as he can without pain.

-- I am recovering fine from my bout in Turkey -- went to the dr. today and we are doing some follow up tests to make sure all the parasites are gone! Yuck!


Signing out...........