"forget everythIng, you were born now"

My friend Lizzy Russinko asked for permission to handletter a quote from the story as Day 19 of her 100 Days of Voices in Place project. It’s a powerful project, I’m grateful to have these words included.

I’ve been contemplating a story, one of the few my grandmother would share about her experience during the Holocaust. She was the first of her family to be taken to the camps. It was early during the war and one of her older sisters was able to visit thru a chain link fence. Her sister told her, “forget everything, you were born now,” those words, the last spoke by her sister to her, felt so harsh to my grandmother. But, my grandmother would tell me, those words were her compass. They helped her survive. To live in the moment.

I hope these words of my ancestors offer you a new frame for this time that is upon us.