My mother lived for 91 years and two days. Her life was full of transitions, and she met them with bravery, intelligence, determination, and love. 

Born in Breslau, Germany, at the age of 9 she moved with her mother and father to Montevideo, Uruguay, to escape the Nazis. She adapted to the loss of her homeland, embracing an entirely new culture, but remaining anchored to the old one especially through her parents. 

She became proficient in Spanish and English, winning student awards for writing. She helped her father, known as ‘the old German’ in his bookstore. 

At age 18 she was working as a bilingual secretary for the president of an import-export company in Montevideo. At 19 she moved to Middleboro, Mass to live with her uncle Hardy and his family. She soon moved to Boston, where she worked as a secretary for the President of Raleigh Bicycles. A few years later she became Executive Secretary for the export manager at Myerson Tooth Corporation in Cambridge. 

She met and married her husband Eric when she was just 23. She continued to work at Myerson until they started a family. She gave birth to me one day after her 27th birthday. Lenore came along 3 years later. 

The family moved from an apartment in Brookline to their own home in Waban, a village of Newton, Massachusetts. It was the American dream, or so it seems to me in hindsight. A four-bedroom home with a large yard on a quiet tree-lined street, nice neighbors, a good school that we walked to, two cars, and summer vacations on Cape Cod. 

My mom left the workforce for 20 years while she cared for her kids. I remember many homemade family meals, help with homework, birthday parties, and loving care when it was needed, whether due to illness, injury or insult. 

But Eva took care of herself, too. She took art classes at the DeCorva Museum, at which she painted, sculpted and threw pots. She took college classes part-time for ten years, eventually earning her Bachelor’s Degree in psychology from the University of Massachusetts in Boston, graduating magna cum laude in 1977.

All this time Eva maintained deep friendships, many of which lasted 60 even 70 years. She kept in regular contact with childhood friends from Montevideo for as long as they lived. And her closest friends from her life in Boston: Lolly, Valle, and RoseAnn, who I hope are on the phone here today, were a tremendous source of mutual love and support for many, many decades.

An abundance of close friends must have helped a great deal when her marriage ended. Difficult as that was, Eva transitioned yet again to become an independent professional woman. She started working in senior services, first as an administrative assistant and then as a program coordinator, at one point overseeing 200 clients receiving in-home services. 

She went on to work for Harvard Community Health Plan and then became coordinator of alumni affairs at Harvard Medical School, a position from which she took great satisfaction. She lived for many years in Brookline, Mass., where she was elected Town Meeting representative for her precinct. 

Somehow she also found time to be a yoga instructor, and at one point, to serve as a translator in a local court. I don’t remember the details but she told me that didn’t last long because it was too stressful to have the defendants pleading their case directly to her in Spanish. At some point she also worked as a tour guide in the Wonder Bread factory in Natick, Mass. Sometimes my sister and I would visit with her after school, consuming hot-off-the press Ding Dongs, Ho-Hos, and of course, Twinkies.

Once she retired, at the wise urging of my wife Tracey, she moved to Brattleboro when her grandsons Sam and Nick were ages 11 and 8. Transitioning once again, she made this community her home for nearly 16 years. She was active with the Windham Arts Council, the Brattleboro Area Jewish Community, and writing groups. She made new friends while keeping close with her old ones. 

Eva loved to travel. She went to London to see plays with a theater tour organized by Marlboro College. She went to Japan with her companion Marot.  She went to Hungary to teach English as a volunteer. She went bird watching in Costa Rica. 

Eventually her energy waned and she moved into Holton Home where she lived happily for 8 years, enjoying the gardens, participating in Facebook on her computer, and having lunch in town with friends like Howie and Jennifer. 

 

At age 89, with the help of Melissa, she compiled many of her essays into a book titled “My Moveable Life,” capturing her life transitions, intense personal experiences and loving relationships on three continents. 

It occurs to me my mother can best be described as a cultured woman. She held the cultural experience of living in three different countries, she was fluent in three languages, and she synthesized this diversity into an understanding of human nature that can only come from being multi-cultural. In addition, she was erudite and creative. 

A passionate reader of books, newspaper and magazines, she was a subscriber to the Sunday New York Times and the New Yorker magazine up to the end of her life. She loved movies, foreign and domestic. In short she was remarkably well informed. As a painter, a potter, a teacher, a writer and maybe even a piano player, we’re not sure – she had many talents that enriched her life. 

Of course, she found joy in being with her children, grandchildren and close friends. I will always remember her as a loving mother and grandmother, may she rest in peace.