A few years ago on my 40th birthday, I had this conversation with my dad. I was so struck by my dad’s responses that I transcribed it word for word:
JB: Was your mother ever happy?
AL: Yes, she was very lively and happy, but she had a very hard life and that toughened her to the world.
JB: Do you remember a time when she was happy?
AL: No
As my dad and I began this blog project, I reminded him of this conversation. In support of my father, my mother chimed in that she thought my father’s mother was happy when she lived with Ferdi. Reading the details of life during this period in this blog these past few days, the period when my grandmother lived with Ferdi, I cannot imagine that she was happy.
J.B.