Everyone Has A Story

The book world is changing. When I wrote my first proposal for a book back in the turn of the century (That sounds way too old!) I hunted likely publishers, drove myself crazy writing the perfectly compelling proposal, and in the end received countless rejections and no means of putting the book to paper. It was depressing and discouraging.

Then through a funny sequence of events I made a transcript of my father and his two brothers talking about their lives. At the time, I also had contact with a distant cousin and offered to help him put his life into written words. To have it printed simply and inexpensively, I used the website Lulu.com and with manageable effort published “My Cousin Mickey”.

On and off through this whole period I worked on a fictional story about the Rabbi of the Warsaw Ghetto’s wife. It was a tough go- lots of starts and stops- and always the fear that after all of this effort, what was the point if there was so little possibility of being able to find a publisher?

At the beginning of this year, with one rejection for the story in hand and the experience of publishing “My Cousin Mikey” under my belt, I decided that it was important to simply let the Rabbi’s wife see the light of day. To do that I would self-publish. I already had some experience so how hard could it be?

It was challenging, one set of lots of rules for mass distribution and another totally different set for an eBook but once I started, I was determined and so finally “Tent of Protection” is available on Amazon in paper and on a Kindle.

In the middle of all of this, a distant relative of my father’s contacted me this week. She had found the taped interviews I had done with my father and wanted to figure out the family connections.

Being in communication with her and other family members plus now more confident in my self-publishing knowledge, it took me one day to resurrect the transcript of the interview with my father and his brothers and publish “Brothers Sam Howard and Jason Shapiro”, a great story of a Jewish immigrant family.

It was so easy and so much fun, I’m eager to figure out what topic I will explore for my next self-publishing project. Any ideas?

Purim in the Ghetto

When Purim time comes around I am particularly sensitive to women’s issues as shown by my blog last year and this thoughtful article from Lilith Magazine.

Then I did a great deal of research for my story inspired by the life of Rabbi Kalonymus Kalman Shapira and I learned of his Purim celebration in the Warsaw Ghetto where he insisted that no matter the circumstances, they would have Purim.

So it is with the joy of Purim. The obligation to rejoice is not only the person who is already happy, or merely for the individual who is in a potentially joyful situation. Rather, even if the person feels lonely and brokenhearted, with mind and spirit crushed, he must inject a spark of joy into his heart.

Rabbi Kalonymus Kalman Shapira

Knowing Rav Shapira’s story guarantees that my view of Purim is irrevocably expanded.

In The Lineage of a Torah Scholar

This week I received an email from a family genealogist who had found some taped interviews I made with my father and his two brothers back in 1998. In it my Uncle Sam referred to his great-uncle, the famous Rabbi.

Her husband’s great-grandfather was Rabbi Jacob Joseph Hurvitz. He was also my father’s great-uncle, the brother of my great-grandfather, Morris Shapiro. It took a great effort on the genealogist’s part to figure out that the two were connected.

The reason the brother’s have different last names is that while in Russia, the way to stop inscription in the army, was to buy the name of someone who died. Both of the brothers were originally named Kaplan.

My great-great uncle, Rabbi J J Hurvitz was Chief Rabbi of Lynn, MA at the time of his death in 1931. Before that he was the Rabbi at our own Toras Chaim on Negley Avenue and before that he was the Chief Rabbi of Chelsea.

Pretty good yikhes for me!

Jacob’s Memory Lives

Louise,
You created a quilt in remembrance of my six year old son, Jacob. With his 18th birthday coming up, I thought you should know how much your beautiful work of art has comforted me each and every day since then. My wonderful memories of Jacob will never go away and with his quilt hanging in our game room they are kept vivid in my heart. When I see the quilt I also think of you and how grateful I am to you for creating such an indescribable memory of Jacob.

Forever grateful,
Jacob’s Mom

Jacob,
It is hard to believe you are turning eighteen. Know that you are deeply loved and never forgotten.
Louise

Satisfaction

My friend asked me if I wanted a bunch of his old t-shirts instead of taking them to Good Will.

I wanted to say no- if you remember from my blog last week, I have more t-shirt remnants that I need but I couldn’t turn down the offer and before I knew it, I had possession of his well-worn t-shirt collection.

The first thing I did was cut out the t-shirt backs and pieced them together into the backing for a quilt. To do this, I cut large strips 18 “wide and piece them together to get a backing about 90” square.

A ready and willing quilt backing called out for a quilt top. With lots of sleeves and edges leftover, I went into my scrap bin and brought out all of the tiny pieces left over from my last art quilt and before I knew it, I had blended the sleeves, edges, bits and pieces into a dynamic patchwork top.

This week, the quilt returned from the quilter and found favor in the eyes of my friend. He has proudly taken his transformed t-shirts as the newest adornment for his bed. Pretty cool?

Labels

This week I received a new shipment of labels. I found a reasonable company I’ve been using for a long time that weaves in the name making a professional presentation. I remember the first time I made the order, it seemed like a huge commitment because the most economical way to order was to get 144.

This 4th order marks me at over 500 memory quilt commissions and a goal of 150 more!

A View From The Loft

Sunday, November 18, 2012; 5:15 AM

Unable to sleep attempting to visualize how thirty-two people will be comfortable and well-fed this coming Thursday, I cuddle up under my favorite quilt on my bedroom loveseat and disappear into Amos Oz’s Scenes from Village Life.

This may be the best view in the loft. From the right window, I see the striking colors of the sunrise. The view ahead is the housetops towered by the top of the Birmingham Bridge. The left window offers a peak of the green Casmir Church dome backed by the tips of downtown buildings.

Family photos line the cross beam of the ceiling surrounding me with love. Uncle Phil’s corner peacefully anchors the space. The IKEA lamp salvaged from the dumpster makes a soft halo of light.

My circa 1987 quilt table that continually finds it way back to me, supports my warm beverage that Steve lovely prepared and served, just like having breakfast in bed.

The pillows at my head are well-known, friendly t-shirts. The loveseat is upholstered in textured threads of my favorite crewel fabric. The warmth of my best memory quilt is the icing on the cake.

Maybe if I stay here long enough Thanksgiving will take care of itself.

Favorites

For most of my adult life, I have lived in clothing made by CP Shades.. The colors, fabrics, loose comfortable styling and pricing are some of the reasons I favor the line. I have a navy rayon pajama style pants suit that looks as good today as the day I bought it some time in the late 80s.

Instead of fall shopping, I decided to continue in my DIY direction and take some of my older CP Shades shirts that I no longer wear and transform them into something new.

I did it over several days with lots of stops and starts. Even though I haven’t worn any of these shirts in some time, fear takes over making it difficult to cut into something I love.

Memories

Now-a-days everybody is documenting their lives via a smart phone. It’s easy to take a photo on instagram or disseminate a thought by way of twitter.

I remember when it was a really big deal for my mother to get out the movie camera to document an important event in our lives. I went to great lengths to transfer this movie of my 8th birthday from film to utube. It wasn’t easy and very time consuming.

When my granddaughter was born and lived in Pittsburgh, I would document our time together on a blog. Since she moved to Michigan, I’ve taken to making these little montage movies of our time together using the camera on my iphone and the program imovie.

I wonder how she will document her granddaughter’s memories when she is a Bubbe?