The other night Chuck pulled into the driveway after work and came in the front door-only it wasn't him... it was a bald, little Jewish man with a lisp.
As my brain tried to process what the hell was going on and figure out who this little man was standing in my kitchen, I remembered him telling me that he was going to a lecture at the church that night presented by a holocaust survivor. It began to make sense. He said, "Mr. Wiener, meet my wife, Shelly. Shelly, this is Mr. Wiener." As I shook his hand, this sense of complete...curiosity/gratitude/sadness came over me. This man, who survived and lived to tell about the most horrific experience of his life, was in my kitchen.
Chuck promptly ran upstairs to change his clothes, leaving me and the kids alone with this stranger, my new friend, Mr. Wiener. I grilled him for as much info as I could over the course of the next 5 minutes. I was struck by how youthful he looked for an 83 yr. old man. His teeth were just perfect (which is usually one of the first things I notice about someone-I'm pretty sure they were real), his posture was like that of a 20-something's, and he was as sharp as a whip! I wasn't able to make it to his lecture that night because I was putting the boys to bed, but Chuck thought it would be a good learning experience for Breanna to attend. He gave me his business card and told me this was his 400th-ish speaking engagement. He is one of a handful of remaining Holocaust survivors in Oregon. He has authored a book titled, "From a Name to a Number" recounting his story. That night I Googled him to read some more about him since I had to miss his lecture. I have his book in my "wish list" with Swaptree.com.
This is a great new site I found where you can trade your old books for new ones! You just pay for shipping. You enter in the bar codes from the back of your books and you get a list of THOUSANDS of books you could request for a trade.
Back to my story... Speaking of the Holocaust, if you haven't seen Life is Beautiful, oh.my.goodness. You must! It is just so wonderfully (for lack of a better word) BEAUTIFUL how this man, the main character (Roberto Benigni-remember he won the Oscar and jumped up on his chair?!) creates this amazing adventure for his son. One of my ALL TIME faves.
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