January - 2022

She Ain't Heavy, She's My Mother

Jane

Jan 17, 2022

Tender moments

21.8.21 Music has always been, and still is, a shared love between Mum and Gil. Together they quietly hum melodies, concluding with one of mum's favourites -- the Chorus of the Hebrew Slaves from the opera, Nabucco, by Verdi.

Jane

Jan 2, 2022

A singalong for Yasmin

30.9.20 Mum is alway part of any occasion. Here we are performing a birthday song for Yasmin. The singers: Bee, me, Marysia, Coby and Gil. Sisira is the cameraman.

Jane

Jan 2, 2022

Marysia... today is your birthday!

1.1.22 Mum always said she was born in 1924. A few years ago, her friend, who worked at the Holocaust Centre, checked the Łódź Ghetto records that showed her date of birth is the 20th of October 1923. At this stage of her life, a year older or younger doesn't matter anymore, but it's still an interesting fact. So today she is 97 or 98. Mum's birthday has always been around the time of Simchat Torah, the Jewish festival that celebrates the beginning of the reading of the Tora

Jane

Jan 2, 2022

A light-bulb moment

1.1.22 About 6 months ago, while tidying up my bookshelf, I came across a folder of mum’s life stories before and during the war. They were part of a collection of interviews from 2006 carried out by Adele Hulse. Adele worked for a programme called ‘Write Your Story’ run by the Lamm Jewish Library of Australia. The programme guides members of the Jewish community, mostly Holocaust survivors, to write and publish their autobiographies. Adele’s interviews with mum stopped midwa

Mum is 97 or maybe 98, according to the Lodz Ghetto records. Till now, she has lived a rich and vibrant life, despite living through the war and its aftermath. In 2017, after dad died, she made the decision to move in with me. Instead of feeling burdened, I embraced the change and the opportunity to care for her.

These posts capture mum’s precious last years living with me in my home - a ‘share home’ - with other family members and housemates - who all support, appreciate and love having her around.

Many of us are not familiar or get a chance to be involved in the lives of the very old. I wanted to documents the years with mum as a record for the generations to come, (and others who might be interested) that reveal the daily joys and challenges of caring for a loved one with dementia.

As an afterthought, we know that mum hasn’t always been old. In these posts I also aim to include the heart-felt and awe inspiring stories from her earlier years.

MY PERFECT MAN

My Man in Melbourne

An Ode to a Human Painting Machine

Ketubot/Marriage Contracts

An Ode to a Human Painting Machine

janeKormanART

She Ain't Heavy, She's My Mother