To
my family:
Since I began working with older
people I have been fascinated by their life stories. The questions I never asked Bubby or my parents, Belle and
Irving, started springing forth. As my
Lerner cousins and our children trickled north to the San Francisco Bay Area to
live, to visit, and to attend college, we have gathered for holidays and had
the opportunity to share memories of earlier pesachs, schule, our cousins,
aunts and uncles, and Bubby and Zadeh.
When Cousins Marvin and Evelyn
Lerner came to visit in the fall of 1982, I realized that Marv had experiences
with a Bubby and Zadeh I never knew, and uncles much younger in their lives.
During August 1984, coinciding with
the Olympics in Los Angeles, I interviewed the Lerner Uncles and Aunts and
Cousin Iris. Adding to that was an
exceptional taped interview of Cousin Sol Schecter and Uncle Joe, which was
done by Cousins Michael and Harvey Lerner in January 1978. During her visit to Los Angeles in December
1984, I had a short interview with Rose Birnbaum, Bubby’s niece, cousin of the
Lerner Boys, and Aunt Laura’s sister.
The catalyst of it all, Cousin Marvin, sent a great letter capturing the
essence of his recollections. And
finally, Harvey Lerner, who definitely got his talent for art
from the non-Lerner side, has done the wonderful layout of the family tree and
all the artwork and graphics.
So - it has been "a little here, a
little there" in the getting the memories down on paper, even with the gaps, so
that we can have an anecdotal history to share and enjoy with each other, to
stimulate us to remember other stories, and most of all, to pass these
on to our children and theirs, the legacy of our family’s struggle with life
circumstances.
We Lerners are a funny breed - just
ask those who have married us. We share
the family traits of being strong-minded, industrious, tenacious, stubborn and,
also, a little clumsy. We come from
common folk, we’re "down to earth", and there is a strong bond. (Just live away from L.A. and you feel the
pull!)
I want to thank you all for both the
pleasant and painful memories you shared with me. They have enriched my understanding of our family, of my parents,
and of myself - my heritage. I thank
you all for that gift which I pass on.
Love to you all,
Nessa Fay Lerner Wilk
June 1985