Ann Cortel
Ann Cortel was born in Frankfurt, Germany, one of three children and the only daughter in an Orthodox, comfortable middle-class family. Her father worked in the fine crystal business, and the household kept a kosher home and lit Shabbat candles. She had a beloved nanny, Miss Lucy Wagner, with whom she remained in contact for the rest of her life. As a young person Ann took part in a Zionist Jewish scouting organization that shaped her lifelong connection to Israel. As conditions worsened for Jews in Germany, her older brother emigrated to Israel and her younger brother to America. Ann herself went to England around 1938, working as an au pair and attending college.
Ann lived in England for about ten years. She married her first husband, Herbert, in 1942 and lived for a time in Scotland during the war, when her name was changed to Anne Hawley. Her parents, who had moved to Luxembourg and then wandered through Belgium, Holland, and toward Marseille, did not survive the Holocaust and died in a concentration camp. Herbert was shot and killed in April 1946 while working in Nuremberg, one year after the war ended. Widowed and having endured great loss, Ann came to Dallas in May 1947, joining her younger brother who had married a Dallas woman. She found her first sense of belonging at the Jewish Community Center, then on Pocahontas Street, joining the Twenty-Five Club and building a new life.
In 1949 Ann married Walter Cortel, a relative of Albert Einstein, whom she was privileged to meet several times. She built a successful career in sales, at times running her own business, and raised two daughters, Nina and Karen, of whom she was immensely proud. Walter died of cancer in November 1971, the same year Ann herself was treated for breast cancer, and the couple recovered side by side at Baylor Hospital. Through bridge, work, travel with her daughters, and community service, Ann learned to carry on. She served as president of the Neighbors Women, was active in the Brandeis University Women's Club and the Jewish Community Center, and worked to instill Jewish identity in her children and grandchildren so that her parents would not have died in vain.
Full Transcript
I'm sitting here with a friend, Ann Kortel, and another friend, a gorgeous little puppy who's lying very, very sweetly in her lap. Good morning, Ann. How are you? Good morning. I'm fine. Ann, with each interview that I conduct, I usually say there's only one way to begin, just like the Bible said, in the beginning. So that's where we will begin. Where were you born? In Franklis. In Frankfurt, Germany? Germany, uh-huh. What kind of a family were you born into? A working family, high class, middle class? How many children were in the family? Tell me a little bit about it. I was born into, I guess, one was a child, an upper-middle-style family.
We were certainly not as wealthy as every German man who tended to be. We were very comfortable and then whereby we had a kinder, Pauline, or a nanny with whom we are in contact up to this current day and we had for the maid and we were three children. I have two brothers. I was the only daughter and... What did your father do? My father apparently at one time was in the gun business, but that was changed. And he was in fine crystal. And in the years that I recollect myself, he traveled because he was part owner or jobber or whichever of a very fine crystal company.
and it was which was somewhere on the border of Germany and Switzerland and and that is what he did. What about your, what kind of a home was it? It was a Jewish Orthodox home. It was not black Orthodox and as much as we we would carry on Shabbat and or we would put on a light at home but we were We were not submitted to write with a pen or write on the vehicle. We certainly would not go to school, which we didn't anyway. We lit Shabbat candles every Friday night. It was a kosher semi home Did you live in a Jewish area like up Grand Grandford North Dallas North Dallas okay There were lots of Jewish people Yes.
Did you go to a public school? Did you have any Hebrew education? Yes, I did. I did go to a public school. Well, I went to work with... We don't have to spend schooling here, but I went to a high school until such time that one could not continue to go to that school. Now I was moved to a Jewish school. It was an equal academic level. level i learned i don't recall much i have blocked it out of my mind uh um i can read every with the dots and that is below yeah and uh i uh went to hebrew school i'm sure i uh it's like my husband he said he took out the plugs and they came out uh did you run with the jewish yes always all my life what did they do what as youngsters i was in a in a in a in a in an organization that is comparable to the to the to the um is it the nebrius no no no no the the the um oh scouts that's right it was a jewish thing and oh kadima i don't i don't recall what it was called it was a collective zionistic jewish uh organization that uh uh made me aware of zionism and and and and always mingled with Jewish people, I guess, all my life.
And I went on trips with them during the summer, on Sundays, and during the weekend. In fact, I was being punished. If I didn't do what I should do in school, or if I didn't do whatever else, then I wasn't allowed to go and attend one or something. Okay. And as a teenager, what social things did you do? Well, life changed practically because... Is that when the war came, when you were a teenager? I was, I was, uh, 9 and 33, 35. Our mates went, and I began to very much like being the only girl in the house. And, uh, uh, we then became slaves of a rather large in the household there, and, uh, it was not altogether too pleasant.
I then finished school too, and then I probably would have, under other given circumstances, went to a finishing school in Geneva, in order to my friends and learn good manners, which the friends didn do too well Okay what things did they teach you at a finishing school Well how to cook how to take care of babies It was actually a preparation for one would have the only daughter of a sort of whatever you can get married with And also a diary was assembled and went to England. I went to England when I was 19 or 20. I came to England and I went to college as well as lived as an au pair in a household with Professor Dr.
Franco. whose children I watched. You know what au pairs? Yes, I do. My girlfriend has au pairs. She lives in London. That's right. Mine is too. That's very common over there. Right. And I ended up in Golded Green, which is the thing. Very Jewish. Absolutely the thing to do. And NW-11. And that was in 1938, I would think. And my English was not very good. I had certainly learned it, but it wasn't very good. And being that I like to talk, it was pretty bad. I couldn't talk too well. I mingled with Germans, and I lived in England for 10 years. So you were in England during the war?
What about your family? Let's go back. Did they remain in Germany? Well, my family moved to Luxembourg, and I actually... If you would ask me casually, where do I come from, my instant answer would be Luxembourg. It has always been this. I very rarely openly admit that I'm born in Frankfurt. It became a thing that... So your family survived the war then? No, my family did not survive the war. My family unfortunately moved to Luxembourg. My oldest brother had, in the meantime, emigrated to Israel, and my youngest brother had come to America. And I was in Europe and in England. And my parents started moving out of Luxembourg, over around Luxembourg, Belgium, and Holland in 1941, and my parents began to move.
Ended up somewhere in Marseille. I'm not sure. I never have known where. Okay. So your brothers, there's one in Israel? Yes. Okay, and one here in America? In Dallas. Henceforth, my arrival. All right, well, we'll get around to that. We're jumping around a little, but that's interesting. So your brother was one of the real pioneers of Israel, I mean from the 1930s, right? Yes. We were all very Israeli oriented. So what did he do in Israel What is he doing in Israel Well at first they struggled very much and my older brother was almost an attorney He's the brightest one and had, of course, the most of the education and what normally would have been.
Right. And I'm not sure. He ended up in the army, he ended up in the intelligence at a very early level, and remained in it. In fact, retired out of it at 50 as a colonel, which in Israel was saying, and he was in the intelligence, and we don't know to this day exactly what he should do. All right, let's turn back. Let's go back with you as an au pair, where you did the ironing and the wash and looked after the children and ran with your German friends and didn't know English very well. All right. Is this where, how long were you in London?
How long, you stayed there for 10 years. I lived in England for 10 years. I married in 1942. Okay, I'm going to stop you. How did you meet your husband? I was born... This is also... That's okay. I lived and moved around. I lived at left, all the screen. I went to a college. I was in the city of London. I moved to a thing called Dalton Square, which then, comparable to what today would be a condominium complex, way ahead of its time, in Chelsea, near Victoria Station. It was bombed. And I had to get out of there. And then someone else knew of some gentleman that had lost his wife and needed an au pair, needed somebody to cook for him and take care of him.
That is what I did do in Bemptley Park. Right, so you moved in with this gentleman? Yes. And across the street lived Mr. and Mrs. Cohen, and whose son was in Canada finishing his studies on being coming in architect and when he came home i met him his name was herbert stone and uh well not so much didn't take so long you're a fast worker get married and uh we did marry in the home of mr bernstein where i was at so he was like a father yes a father a lovely lovely relationship and very generous and nice relationship and um after i married i began to live I left, and I lived in Scotland for 42, 3, 4, I lived for about 2 years.
It was in, it was in, it was in Scotland. I mean, they touched Edinburgh in Scotland, but it was in places that one normally would never get at or get to, where the British... He was in intelligence. Oh, my name was changed. I was Anneliese Fidel, I became Anneliese Korn, ended up as Anne Hawley in six months. The army changed the names of the Jewish sounding people to something that wasn't quite so Jewish in intelligence. Isn't that interesting? It was supposedly the same initial. We had been on our honeymoon in a thing called H-O-R-L-E-Y. I liked the name very much, Anne Hawley. I thought it sounded very good.
And so in a very really short period of time, I had then finally become Anne Hawley. As such, I arrived in America, and that became my name until I remarried. Anne Hawley, okay. and holy so you were in i was i was scotland and then he was went overseas i came back to london and that is when these one and v2 these were the things that flew themselves missiles and and then came down and that was scary i happened to get to torquay which is in devonshire which is one of the most beautiful areas in england met oh we went there on a furlough on a on a whatever and it was run by very orthodox jewish people from frankfurt whom i had not previously known uh whom i became extremely friendly with i remained at that hotel worked in every capacity that you could think of including waiting on tables and disaster struck first time with the train when I took out one thing and the other thing came down over the people.
I learned how to take a tip. First time only it was difficult. The after it became a question of how much. But I stayed there. Herbert, my first husband, was killed one year after the war, April the 5th, 1946. He was working in Nuremberg on the trial, and he was shot and killed one night, leaving his whatever he was doing. And which, of course, at that time was quite tragic. It has since ceased to be that completely. But at that particular time, it was very bad because it... It was after the war It was a year after the war and it was a year after I had heard of several months after I had found out for certain that my parents had been in a concentration camp That was a very difficult time.
That was the beginning of very difficult moments and very difficult times. And I left Turkey, eventually went back to London. You had no children? No, we had no children by choice. I mean, we really had decided we were young and we would wait until the time. And we had planned to come to America. It was very difficult in England. You were a foreigner and a Jewish foreigner, that. And even if you had some skills in the war, it was not totally difficult in this country, completely different. and we sort of had thought of coming here, and I also, and pursued that and had helped in making this a reality.
And, of course, my brother here had been stationed in Wichita Falls, I think, and had met and married a girl from Dallas, and that is how the most fortunate, singly greatest, fortunate thing happened to me, I think, in all of my life was not alone coming to this country, but coming to Dallas. that is where it sits you see this that that faith agrees that i should come to this town when did you write in 47 in may of 47 right now 30. okay so that was a year after you were widowed yes i i wrapped the war widow which was very funny because everybody else was a war bride well this is okay that goes so i got here in may of 47 i weighed 205 pounds what yep and And my brother that lived here was in shock when he finally saw me, as I was too.
And he only could say, well, sister, you're going to have to lose some weight, which I was needed to do. I lost 70 pounds and became a totally different human being and had a ball in town, absolute ball, really did. I worked for the public bank and I dated a great deal and was accepted and began to mainstream my life into the community. this Jewish community specifically. In fact, the center, the center was in Pocahontas Street, and when I had nowhere to go and didn't know anyone and had certainly no money of any kind, I didn live very far from it And they had a 25 club which was headed by people like Aaron Spelling and Mr Tankus They were acting and they thought that I was rather exuberant, I should also act, but I freeze.
I may be very vital or alive, but when I get up on a stage, things don't work so well. But the center gave me a sense of belonging, and it was the first place that I went to, found friends, made friends, had a place to go, helped me move, find a new home in North Dallas, which in 1947 was unheard of. The centre was my beginning, my middle and my end. I'm back. I've always been involved with the centre. Yeah, I almost forgot that. I will never forget it. It was definitely somewhere to go on Sunday. And this goes back to, I'd say, the 47th.
And, of course, life changed and things went on. And exactly two years later, in May of May 8th, which is this coming Friday, I met my husband, Walter, and we met on Mother's Day, Married and Father's Day. Wow. Is one month different? Uh-huh. Was he a widower? No, he had not ever been married. And how old were you at this time? I was 29, and he was 39. 39. And that is when life began, I would say. I mean, pretty much so. And I must say that the first relative of my husband's family that I was privileged to meet was Albert Einstein. Einstein is or was Walter's first mother's first cousin.
So we have a letter. My daughter Ken and my younger daughter Ken, I gave it to her as a wedding gift, has a letter that Albert Einstein wrote after meeting me to his cousin, whom he was very friendly with as well as being related, which is Walter's mother, telling her how he had met me and saying the most wonderful, charming, flattering things about me. And I had enough brains to realize somewhere the importance of such a letter, so I told my mother-in-law and asked would she please return the letter to me, which she did. And she said I gave it to the wedding, it was to my daughter Karen.
When you spent time with Einstein what things did you discuss What did you talk about Well we talked about everything The thing was that my husband had told me that I should not ask silly questions I should think before I would speak. I should talk quietly, slowly. In other words, we had my very best behavior. And we had gotten there and he was just, I don't know, pretty shortly thereafter, he said, I should just make myself at home and exit. This doesn't sound as well in English as it is in German. Oh, we talk in German at all times, and I was both in. But he said in essence that he was as normal and as human as anyone, and his aim was to go to the bathroom every day to do his number two, the same as I.
So I should always remember that. And regardless of who I was coming in contact with, everyone was surviving for that daily yoga. And unfortunately, all fortunately, I became very quickly my normal self, very relaxed and very at ease. We talked about his affiliations with Israel because there was very little Judaism on there, and my husband and I and the family. They were very un-Jewish, in fact. And in fact, Mahasra's background was one of extreme wealth. I would have never met him under normal circumstances because they moved in a completely different circle than I ever had. How did you meet him? Through a blind date in Dallas and someone who had decided that that should happen.
And he did, so he wouldn't let down. So Einstein spoke of his relationship with Israel? I asked him, that was one of the things. He also spoke very despairingly about the atom bomb. He felt very badly about what it had done. He felt very guilty that he had a part of it. He dreamed of being alive, seeing nuclear power being used in some constructive way. We touched on many subjects. I saw him again. I saw him three times prior to his death in 1935. Unfortunately, my children, of course, did not meet him. I still am in touch with his daughter and his secretary in Princeton, and it was, of course, quite an exciting part of your life.
Yes, indeed. All right, so you married, then obviously you've had children because you speak What did your husband do for living? My husband sold brassiere and girdles. And I went and did the same. I finally all of a sudden found the profession. We discovered that I had a great ability to sell, which nobody had known. And even in Dallas, people would say to me, well, even when you find out what it is that you can do, come and tell us, of course we'll find you a job. But you have to have something you can do. And I couldn't do anything really. So I found my niche and in fact went into business somewhere along the way and taught to sell, tried to teach other people how to sell.
Are you open to school or teaching? No, I work for the firm that Walter worked for and they employ me, in fact they employ me to this day because they put me back under payroll when Walter died and it is a public a very meticulous job of sorts. It is trying to sell oneself to whomever one deals with, the salespeople and or the customer, and then go into the various intricacies of selling versus hugging the cash register that cannot move. It's there today. Right. Okay. And all right. Let's back up a little. So you worked with your husband, you became a salesperson, but somewhere along the line you had children.
Right. My husband's dad at that time had come to have a family, so we proceeded and, as usual, brain boom, there we were. You were successful. Absolutely. And my daughter Nina was born in 1952. In fact, she was born on my father's birthday, April the 29th, and named for my mother, which meant more than maybe words ever could express. and especially since we thought they would have only, I don't know if I should say this, whatever. You thought you'd have only one child? Well, yeah, I shouldn't say this, but my second daughter does know this. So, and I do thank God for having had Kerem, regardless of how this came about.
Anyway, Nina was born, and then an opportunity arose thereafter. That's pretty much thereafter to go into business. and I did go into business and we leased the apartments in an existing chain of stores in Dallas where we sold procedures and girdles. And I did that for either 90 years But then in the meantime became pregnant again and Karen was born in 55 I went out of business in 59 I think because who looked after your children that right we had we were very fortunate we had a a lady live with us Rosie in fact the children didn't think they could continue to grow up without Rosie who then left and who literally she didn't live with but you might as well have, and drove a car.
But I began to work nights, only to be with children in the daytime, and it fortunately worked itself out so that I went out of business because I was determined to have an ongoing relationship with my children. I was determined to be their friend and have them look up on me as their friend and have a completely different way of growing up and relationship with their parents, in other words, myself and my husband, than I had with mine, because there was, of course... Very strict, different forms. Very different, completely different. Did you succeed? Yes, I did indeed succeed. I, this is maybe, they said coming to Dallas was the biggest event in my life, the proudest achievement in my life are my two daughters, and I have no false shame at all.
I rarely look at anyone's face and say that. In fact, people very, very often say to me how lucky I was with my daughters, and I say yes to a degree. Are they married? Yes, they're married. Living in Dallas. My daughter Nina is an attorney, a practicing attorney, and she is a recent mother. She has a young daughter, Bob Fine, who's a doctor, almost. He will finally become a doctor fully in his own right this June, the end of this June. What about Karen? Karen is a research evaluator with the Independent School District, and I'm going to graduation. She finds she's got a master degree just now.
And her husband is Jimmy Reisman, who's a dentist in Medical City. I highly recommend them. They are happily married and leading... You're very lucky with your children. ...fulfilled, active life. When the children were growing up do you have any stories to show Did you travel with them Did you As a matter of fact we did We traveled with them In the beginning Walt and I would go on vacation then come back and we ended up mostly in hot springs That seemed to be the best place to go. And we would go to some tourist court there and have fun of those cabin things with kitchen where we had peanut butter.
I don't know how I grew up without peanut butter. And we would take the children. But later on, we would go on extensive trips with the children, three to four weeks with Walter. And it is maybe the best memories we have. Where would you go? We went to California. In other words, we would be grand here and travel through the Albuquerque and all the way through the... For months you would travel with your children. Right, and we did east, west, Miami, east, west, south. I mean, I was in New York, in the area of New York, and St. Louis and Chicago, and at one time to California, back and forth, and another time to Biloxi and on to Miami, and in the areas of Florida, we went back to Biloxi and then explored New Orleans and Louisiana.
We did that for, in fact, we have albums. The children made up albums, and we would spend, being at Walter Travels, it was a matter of making a maximum use out of time that was being spent with the girls, and we were consciously aware of that. And I think we accomplished it. Were you members of any, were you active politically or in any Jewish organization? I worked very hard for the Jewish community center, helped get the initial Sam, Sam, whatever his name was, the then director of the center. there was a little bitty building here with a pool and I have worked for the center on and off for years in various capacities.
I worked the first floor for the United Jewish Appeal. I was involved with and still am actively involved with the neighbors' women. I at one time belonged to every organization and when I quit working you might have thought there had been an ad in the paper that said Ant Hotel is now free she isn working anymore because I became overly busy and my husband kind of rejected to it and said that if I wanted to be that busy I should have stayed working and the children were weaned on it. they they of course when they were old enough became bbgs girls and went to all the michigan yeah that's right i'm going through that now with my daughter who ran for sweetheart and you know walked the whole thing but it's good and healthy no she didn't she and the six weeks was marvelous for her and she accepted it and she now has so many new friends from the whole period and it's a healthy mission god it's a mushyga but it's healthy and i want to pick up on something what you've mentioned at the very beginning that you were raised in germany with a nanny whom you are now still in contact with can you tell me a little more about that that to me is interesting For me so many years.
It's strange. My older brother Richard, who lived in Israel, was sent to Frankfurt in 19...I don't know, I think in the early 60s, to open up a travel agency. The Israeli government did this. It was not...it was a clandestine operation. Nobody really knew that's how it happened, but that's how it was. And he ended up again living in Frankfurt, which seemed inconceivable at the time. I mean, that is how I ended up back in Frankfurt, which I didn't ever dream I would. I guess he was just in the phone book. One day he gets a phone call from... We called her Paula and Lucy, Miss Lucy.
Of course, her name is changed, and Lucy still remains. Wagner was her name. You bet it is now. She saw the name Fibel in the phone book, and she called and found Richard. I got two phones. Yes, I'm real. else. We had endowed her, my parents had endowed her in some fashion or left some money with her or something in order to, she's been with her for many, many years and of course I've lost complete track. But she saw the name in the phone book in Frankfurt and she called my brother and they became friends and our friends. And she now writes me to She was like 18 when she started out.
And she's like going on 18 hours. It's just what I'm about right. And she has a son in America. And she has met both my children. Because I had been back to Frankfurt. Because of which is living there. So he lives partially in Israel and partially in Frankfurt. Up to this very day. Although they are now in the process of permanently returning to Israel. Where they have had a home all these years. and um isn't that interesting so this is how yeah she had found the name fidel and became very curious styled his number and sure enough there was brother richard and she was the one that was with us all these years and so it's uh they picked up with a left off and then done or she comes over in europe you come to cafe in the afternoon you have coffee and and cake or stuff and four block and that's what she does do and she sends me a calendar every year from frankfurt which hangs in a special place same place year after year after year it
is strange it is it is really that that is a very strange thing yes it is the same thing okay there are certain portions of your life that i'm sure we we do not want to discuss uh you have obviously two children that you're very proud of and a new grandchild that's your only one yes um is there anything and if you um well you you said now that in your later life not later you're still young you're a member of the young energetic field you are now and very much involved in the s-cub is that correct what other things are keeping you busy at
the moment well let me backtrack to 1971 which became another unfortunate Unfortunately, so by another milestone in my life, in 1971, as these things happened out of the clear blue sky, Walter became ill and went to the hospital subsequently. And it was determined that he had cancer and that he would not live. and on a Friday, this was on Wednesday, then Thursday, and Friday. Friday afternoon, August the 4th or 5th or something, I found myself at the center where my daughter Nina was working as a counselor. And said both my other daughter was here too at the center That was the center the in center between what we had now and what we had first And I sat him down and I gave him the news as to what was about to be which is exactly what it was.
It was on Friday. On Monday, I won't go into details, I found myself as a doctor and was told that I had cancer of the breast and I would have to go to the hospital and be operated upon then and there. So my children, at a very early level in their life, found out too what life can be. And they had their mother and their father. And somehow someone in the hospital in Baylor helped us to get a room for me next door to Walter. So we laid side by side on the fifth floor at Baylor Hospital. and i became quite obsessed with if to whom would could take care of the children if god forbid something were always to happen to me because how old were they at this time uh nina was 18 and jane was 15.
15 and a half and uh well Well, you had a brother here, you told me. Yes, but sometimes things don't quite work out. We are much more brotherly these days as we were then. Anyhow, we have a man-made brother, and Sister Louane and Harold Kellenberg are brothers, as to me, as to my children, aunt and uncle. They are our family, man-made family. And Walter did die in November, and I lived with Calvotheo. When were you both in the hospital? In August. It all happened in August. He died November 7th, and this was two or three months ago. Precisely the way this was described, it happened.
The reason I'm bringing it up is somewhere along the line I'd learned how to play bridge, and Bridge took up, became a very good therapy. I had to learn to accept it. I had to learn that life does go on. I had to realize I had two young children who had to go on living, and no matter, somehow or other, I just had to get with it. And I had to combat severe illness of my own as time went by But I had also learned at an earlier stage that the world really doesn care to know one tootsie about it all and they don And it's right, they don't.
Why should they? So life does go on, and I worked. That phone put me on the payroll, and I began to work again, some. traveling. Both my daughters went to school and college. And no, Keren was home. Keren was still home in high school, which was really a blessed thing. And this is when I got Shanti, the doctor that's not sitting in my lab. And, um, but two years later, I came 18 and went to school and to college, to Austin. And, um, I worked some. I then became president of the Neighbors Women, something that had more of me to do and I had not done until the time then was right to do it, and I did.
And that took quite a bit of time. And it was just a divided thing between Brandeis University Women's Club in Dallas. I got involved at work and the neighbors women and playing bridge and traveling and doing a little work and what have you and being ill and getting better. I have gotten to the point now where I consciously try to be less involved and do more as athletes. and somehow I managed to stay busy, and consistently busy with one thing into another. More or less the same thing. All right, and you are a very dynamic woman. You've obviously come through many knucks in life. And you have picked up, as I have, everybody has in their lives, and we all discover that life goes on.
and we all discovered that we have a tremendous amount of inner strength that we really didn't know we had. All right, you have one little grandchild, and if someday, you obviously, the center has been a very important part of your life right from the beginning, and someday this little granddaughter might come in for a DBG meeting or grandson, I don't know what it is, a girl or a boy? It's a girl. Okay. She's going to come in like she's a child. My daughter at 15 or 16 and while they waiting for a meeting She maybe sit down in the library and it say uh archives recordings of life and it say Ann Cortell she say hey that my grandmother Hey, you guys, get out of here.
I'm going to sit down and listen. And she sits down and she listens. What would you like to say to her? What would you like to say to her about life, about living, about, is there any advice you'd like to give to her? Is there anything you would like to say? I mean, we'll all be long gone from then. I know that my father, may he rest in peace, once we recorded him and he didn't realize it. And it gives me such pleasure to hear Daddy kibitzing and telling jokes. Is there anything you would like to say to her or future grandchildren as they sit down and listen to this whole thing?
I would like to say that I think the greatest desire I have is to preserve their Jewish identity. And if it sounds large or I can't think of the right term that I'd like to use, it means an enormous amount to me. It goes, of course, back to the fact that the way my parents died, and they shouldn't have died in vain. I argue extremely strong about it, as my children have been brought up with, a very emotional mother, and they're very well aware of it. And I think that hopefully you, Lauren, and or my yet unborn grandchildren will perpetuate it and will be keenly aware of the fact that they are Jewish, know the heritage and are proud and knowledgeable of where they come from and hopefully know where they're going.
In essence, of course, it's to try and take life as it comes and enjoy it as much as possible and learn to roll with the punches as soon as possible. It's so much easier. And my mother said to me, it is easier to swim with the stream than against it. It is simpler. And you have the wisdom to know when one should stand up and face the current and not swim with it, but more generally so, to just go ahead and learn, to get along with people and swim with the stream and go along with it, and therefore maybe enjoy life more and not create more creative problems And this has been a beautiful hour almost together.
Yes. And I want to thank you for sharing your life with me and for anyone in the future who will listen to it. You're a wonderfully strong, dynamic woman, and I wish you many more years and don't ever change. Thank you. Thank you very much indeed.