| My Dad's Remarkable Life - Part 2 |
| Thursday, 26 March 2009 08:13 |
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Think Social Publishing will not typically publish books unrelated directly to the topic of social thinking, but when my dad requested I help him get his book back into print, how was I to refuse? My childhood was very much about my mom helping my dad to recover from the Holocaust. This book was largely told by my mom about my dad, came from hours and hours of my mom sitting in our living room on Sundays with dad and a tape recorder and getting him to talk about the painful facts of his life in Europe. From his parents dawning awareness of the Nazi's growing power, the mental-health breakdown of my grandmother as my aunt was the first to be taken from the family while walking home from school (at 16 years old), the rush to find my dad a place to "hideout" with the family knowing that the parents were soon going to be taken away, to him surviving for a year in Auschwitz, the one place you were not supposed to survive... you can imagine it wasn't your average American upbringing. The Holocaust impacted us all in ways we will never fully understand. Dad's story was not a secret, it was broadcast loudly throughout our childhood; the Garcia kids never new a day in our life when we thought the world was "safe". Nor did we have a large family to be assured everything would be OK. My dad's family was completely wiped out, my mom's family lived far away. From my dad's perspective that meant for us, his three kids, that we needed to live our lives not just for ourselves but to make up for whom he lost. Our lives needed to be about something. My siblings and I have each had our own personal spin on how this affected who we are today; each of our spins is very different from the other. The legacy of the story has now extended to our children, my dad's five grandchildren. In this edition of my mom and dad's story, we added essays at the end of the book giving voice to my brother, my sister, myself and the five grandchildren. Just like with autism spectrum disorders, one person's experience and challenge is never singular. We all are part of the larger experience.For those interested in my dad's story, I hope you will find his lessons of prevailing through harrowing times both informative and uplifting. While we all have our own "dark days", my dad's story focuses not only on his darkest moments but, more importantly, on how he got back on his feet. A story of human triumph is always remarkable. Whether we are talking about a student or family who has worked hard to overcome their challenges or a Holocaust survivor, the human spirit and how we relate to each other along the way is the most remarkable aspect of our lives. My dad's reality is that he would not be alive today were it not for a remarkable friendship he made in the concentration camps. © Michelle Garcia Winner 2011
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