More Mom Memories

Mom would have been 94 earlier this week. She grew up in Amsterdam, and right around her 13th birthday, she and her family fled to the U.S. Just a few months later, the Nazis invaded The Netherlands and soon thereafter massacred 90% of all remaining Dutch Jews. Much of her family tree ended in the concentration camps.

Imagine escaping that fate, and then, just about 10 years later, ending up here on the ranch. I mean, who of us really can? This farm was a refuge and chance for a new life, and not just for Mom and Pop. For about 20 years, until 1969, their business partner Hans, his wife Dina and their family lived here at the ranch, in the front house. Hans was a classmate of Anne Frank, who survived by hiding under the floorboards when the Nazis were coming.

And despite – or because of – all that vivid recent life / family / community history, Mom lived life fully. She played the hand she was dealt, and she was all in, all the time. She grew up in Queens and was in the first co-ed class at Bard. She wanted to be pre-med but knowing that she eventually wanted to have children, and that the college only had limited quota for women students, Mom didn’t want to take someone else’s spot.

Not long thereafter, she was setup on a blind date with some German-born Jewish farmer from California. Old Country connections. Not an arrange marriage, but definitely a setup. Their parents’ families had been interconnected in multiple ways ... indeed, mom’s mom had been orphaned - and then was adopted by our father’s cousins. Like ... what?? Huh??

Mom is known for helping save the environment. And for her cheesecakes. Few know, however, of her work running, literally, the first of a very innovative experimental commercial shiitake mushroom growing operation, here in the hay barn -- long before anyone knew what shiitake mushrooms were. Mom harvested dozens of pounds per day, and could barely give them away at the Marin farmers market, where she had a booth every week.

One day, way back, I remember visiting Mom at her bedside at UCSF while she was recovering from her ... second ... cancer surgery. Few things slowed Mom down, and I think that she was back hard at work in the garden, just a few short days later.

Anyways, while sitting by her side, she said to me: You know (she quietly admitted) - my dream had been to help bring peace to the Middle East.

If you had know our mom like we did, that wouldn’t seem so far fetched.