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On Helene’s 135th Birthday

Family birthdays were the glue that held the family together. During World War I, Helene’s nephews Paul and Erich Zerzawy sent greetings to Helene and their siblings from the front and from a POW camp in Siberia; While waiting to follow their children to the U.S., Helene made sure to write special letters to each of her children on their birthdays and bought Vitali birthday gifts on their behalf. In 1942 and 1943, Helene and Vitali sent notes on Red Cross cards from Vienna when they were limited to 25 words and not allowed to write often; Helene sent greetings from Istanbul while waiting for resources to escape yet another prison; in the 1960s, Robert Zerzawy regretted that he could barely manage to send birthday acknowledgments, apologizing for writing so seldom.

Helene’s 80th birthday in 1966 was a very big deal. In the November 15th post, Robert asked Eva to buy a beautiful bouquet, because he realized he couldn’t order one for it to arrive in time. He also asked her for a family photo which we saw in the September 7th post, although one grandchild was missing from the portrait.

Below are photos of Helene with her 3 grandchildren in 1966. Her “portrait” on the wall behind her was drawn by her son Harry. It is wonderful to see her joy after all her years of sadness and loss.

Here is a card from 4 years later, drawn by Harry’s 9-year old son Tim.