Page 15 - WhyAsInY

PREFACE
Kathy’s father, Warren Baum, left her with a very important gift: a 160-page typewritten autobiography that he had completed during his retirement years. The document provided great solace for
Kathy after her father died, and she began to weep as she attempted to conclude her memorial talk about him by reading aloud the last sen- tences of his book. It fell to me to have the honor of reading those last lines for her—and for him.
Her father’s book not only comforted Kathy, it provided the impe- tus for her to write her own story and to badger her mom, successfully, to resume writing hers. (Jessie—Kathy’s mom—had stopped, after writ- ing a beautiful description of her childhood, because, as she put it, she “didn’t like high school.”) Then, knowing that I was in need of a project, Kathy suggested that I, too, turn to the computer to tell my story.
I did not need much encouragement. I did it for my parents, for my children, for my grandchildren, and, as it turns out, for me.
My father, Arnold, died at the age of eighty-six in 1998, and my mother, Justine, died five years later at the age of eighty-seven. In the years that preceded Dad’s death, he suffered minor stroke after minor stroke, and his deterioration was visible. My mother’s deterioration had not been as visible, but, after Dad died, I watched for five years as what was left of my mom’s memory faded, faded to the point that, while I believe that she continued to know who I was, she lost the ability even to recognize her three grandchildren, Danny, Peter, and Rachel (oldest to youngest), whom she adored.
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