Fantastic story and pics, thanks for bringing it to our attention, subby.

/SuperGrandma is awesome!

OgreMagi: SpeelChuck:
//Hungarian women are hot
///Crazy, too

so much this

no hero tag?

trumpai: Somehow holocaust story seems to be there just for marketing of photos... Bleh.

Not at all. Maybe I see things differently because I know so many Holocaust survivors, people whose families were decimated and who still managed to somehow transcend. Everyone reacts differently, but I have nothing but enormous admiration for the people I know and how they reacted. Each one has somehow managed to find joy in life, to build families, to rear their children with optimism, and still give respect and honor to the ones they lost. Most of them, bless their hearts, will often even shrug off any notion that they themselves should be treated with extra kindness or anything like that.

I've also been blessed that a lot of the ones I know have fantastic, sick, morbid, and hysterically funny senses of humor, and can actually joke about it. Like my cousin, who, whenever I can possibly stick it into the convo, laughs uproariously when I ask her questions like why she chose such a crappy camp to go to in the summer (she survived Auschwitz).

And then there was a lady, housekeeper of a Presidential mansion where I was a staffer, who was so caring of details that she ironed the lace tablecloths on the table one time, when we were preparing for a state dinner. Later that day, she nudged me to put some lipstick on. I laughed and asked her how the hell could she possibly care about such incredibly little useless details, when both she and I know exactly what she's been through in life (she was also a bereaved mother of a son who died in combat). She told me, basically - and I know it's a cliche, but it sure as hell wasn't a cliche when she said it and meant it - she said, "if I stop paying attention to things like your lipstick or a pristine tablecloth, I would die. And that's what they wanted me to do, and I'm not going to let them." I was in awe. I think I managed to hold in my tears till I got to another room where she couldn't see.

These folks are, one by one by one by one, amazing, inspirational, hell, I can't even think of the words that would do justice to them. And even the most optimistic certainly have dark moments and days and nights, thinking of brothers and sisters and mothers and fathers from whom they were one day separated - and never saw again. So if someone who lived through horrors my poor words could never possibly describe, and goes on to live well and have a family and make sure they live well - well, heck, if she's depressed, and her awesome grandson thinks of a cute, funny, oddball way of getting up her spirits, and this amazing lady has enough humor and spirit to go along with it... by all the various gods, it is most certainly germane that she is a Holocaust survivor. Because logically, someone who survived that should never, would never, could never have the good spirit and cheerfulness to play along with such a cute gag. Someone who went through that, you would think, would lock themselves in a room and stare at the walls for the rest of their natural days. (Sadly, there are definitely some survivors who never recovered their sanity, whose broken spirit could not be fixed, and spent the rest of their lives in institutions).

This lady is a Holocaust survivor, who also had the courage during that time to save others, who also raised a family successfully (witness her pretty awesome grandson) and who still can see the bright side of life, and have fun, at age 90. Her story is unusual precisely because of that fundamental detail: she is a Holocaust survivor. Brava. And respekt.