"Miriam, wasn’t it lonely growing up, not having brothers or sisters to play with?” Different people asked me this question over the years. How could I miss something I never had. One question no one ever asked was, “Do you have grandparents?” I didn’t have grandparents because they were murdered over seventy years ago in the Auschwitz concentration camp by the Nazis.
I am an only child with very few relatives, but I did have four parents growing up. You read correctly: not two, but four.
While my mother Olga survived Auschwitz, her hopes of ever having a child seemed gone forever.
In 1949, my mother along with her one surviving sister Ella and Ella's husband Isadore emigrated to the United States. My mother married my father Morris in 1953 and wanted to bring life into the world. In 1964, after eleven years of marriage, they gave birth to me, their miracle baby.
I grew up surrounded by older people. Mommy was almost forty-eight years old and Daddy was fifty-six years old when I was born. Among my friends I was always the different one. Not just because I had older parents, but because my parents were survivors of the Holocaust, one of the greatest horrors of the twentieth century.
My aunt Ella and uncle Isadore were childless yet they were natural at being parents. When Mommy fell ill when I was ten years old, overnight I became Aunty and Uncle’s child that they shared with my parents for the rest of their lives.
I Am Because of You is a tale of how one family survived near-annihilation and blossomed into future generations. It is not just my family’s story, but a story for all people of faith who have experienced loss, illness, renewal, hope and ultimately triumph.
I am an only child with very few relatives, but I did have four parents growing up. You read correctly: not two, but four.
While my mother Olga survived Auschwitz, her hopes of ever having a child seemed gone forever.
In 1949, my mother along with her one surviving sister Ella and Ella's husband Isadore emigrated to the United States. My mother married my father Morris in 1953 and wanted to bring life into the world. In 1964, after eleven years of marriage, they gave birth to me, their miracle baby.
I grew up surrounded by older people. Mommy was almost forty-eight years old and Daddy was fifty-six years old when I was born. Among my friends I was always the different one. Not just because I had older parents, but because my parents were survivors of the Holocaust, one of the greatest horrors of the twentieth century.
My aunt Ella and uncle Isadore were childless yet they were natural at being parents. When Mommy fell ill when I was ten years old, overnight I became Aunty and Uncle’s child that they shared with my parents for the rest of their lives.
I Am Because of You is a tale of how one family survived near-annihilation and blossomed into future generations. It is not just my family’s story, but a story for all people of faith who have experienced loss, illness, renewal, hope and ultimately triumph.
