After I give a speech, many people come up and tell me their experiences of immigration, loss, or the legacy of the Holocaust. One woman told me her poignant story many years ago and it has stayed with me.
Here’s what she said:
“I escaped Vienna as a child in 1939. The Nazis killed my parents so I never had a mother or father to love me after the age of 10.
“When I grew up, got married and had two sons, I turned to my children to get the love I should have received from my parents. It was too much for them. My sons couldn’t take it; they distanced themselves from me. So, in different ways, I lost my parents and my children.
“I am an island.”