Loss

Edith Westerfeld Schumer My mother, Edith, who is now 84 years old, still types with two fingers and thinks that only birds "tweet," posted her first Facebook message on my wall yesterday: "Dear Fern, Congratulations--Thank You for bringing my story to the world. Love Mom" Note: She still capitalizes the pronoun "you," which is correct German grammar.

My barren trellis Three years ago, I spent way too much money on a large climbing rosebush which I hoped would weave an ornate blanket of apricot flowers through the trellis on the front of my house. The first year, the bush did not disappoint. In fact, it produced 47 roses. Believe me, I counted…every day. I patted myself on the back; my money was well spent. I looked forward ...

"Can I have your electronic autograph?" On Thursday evening, a reader approached me after my speech at Cook Memorial Library in Libertyville, Illinois and asked, "Can you sign my Kindle?" Ahhh, the limitations of technology.

“Edith's story will make you ache for her and realize how important a hug can be to a child. Please read it, it will change you forever.” Whale of a Tale Bookstore Blog “The writing is powerful… It will force you to re-assess your judgments, your values, your acts of kindness or lack thereof. Based on the life story of the mother of the author, this book is a must-read.” ...

Author Tim O'Brien "War is not strictly the province of those fighting it," Tim O'Brien, the author of The Things They Carried once said. "The lives of all of us are changed forever. The aftershocks go on and on and on." For that matter, any significant event can have the same effect; the aftershocks rattle and shatter families. Once, when I was explaining to a friend that one of the ...

My cousin sent me these pictures which tell the story of a relative's successful German business and its demise. For more than 100 years, the Kahn family owned a shop selling sundries at the corner of Darmstädter Straße/Ecke Sandböhlin in Groß-Gerau. The first picture was taken in 1851. See blog below (Part II) for more recent pictures. c. 1920s - Business owners Frieda and Julius Kahn in car c. 1930s ...

c. 1940s - Kahns flee Germany. Rubble of Kahn's corner store and home present - "Patrick's Corner" New owners rebuilt corner store.

"...Chapman illuminates the struggles of every immigrant child in a fictionalized account of her own mother’s experiences. Sent out of Germany at age 12 in 1938, Edith goes to live with an uncle’s family in the U.S. Her aunt, though happy to have the stipend the family receives for hosting her niece, treats her like a servant, not a relative; she is an outsider at school and must register as ...

Memoirist Berthe Meijer A new memoir by Berthe Meijer, a Holocaust survivor who, at the age of six, was an inmate at Bergen Belsen along with Anne Frank, "continues the tale of Holocaust victims where the famous diary leaves off." The book, Life After Anne Frank, tells of Meijer's acquaintance with Anne Frank. Meijer claims she remembers Frank's attempts to comfort the small children in the camps by telling stories. ...

"Is It Night or Day?" By Fern Schumer Chapman Farrar Straus Giroux, $16.99, ages 10-14 In 1942, four years after the novel's opening, Edith, now 16, sits by Lake Michigan, having just heard about her family's deaths in Germany. Fern Schumer Chapman tells the story of her mother's life from a child's point of view. The story recognizes, for instance, how exciting shipboard events and sightseeing in New York might ...