"It takes a man with real heart to make beauty out of the stuff that makes us weep.”― Author Clive Barker
In 2016 I embarked on a year-long interview project based on my dream of telling the stories of individuals who had valuable wisdoms for those of us willing to listen and learn.
Since I undertook this video storytelling journey in the year between my 64th an 65th birthdays, I titled the project 64 and More. While the focus was on others, it unexpectedly became my own storytelling odyssey as well.
The project took me across the United States, from New York to Portland, Florida to Michigan, and eventually to The Emerald Isle. The end result was 52 weeks of video stories, divided into Monday through Friday segments of five-to-twelve minutes in length.
I found my subjects in a variety of ways, often through the recommendations of family and friends as well as from complete strangers who heard of my project and wanted to help. One of those “recommenders” was my friend, Patti Huse, from Indianapolis. Patti and I connected 25 years ago through our common devotion to, and ownership of ,Morgan Horses. It was an instant bond that has kept us connected despite the 500 mile distance between our homes.
Early on in my 64 and More adventure Patti messaged that she had an interview suggestion for me. Excited to hear the recommendation of this well-educated, well-read, accomplished woman I immediately called her. Almost as immediately said no to the person she suggested.
My reaction had nothing to do with the person, a man from the Indianapolis area by the name of Frank Grunwald. Rather my negative response related to his story——that of a Holocaust survivor.
My reasoning for rejecting Patti’s suggestion came down to one simple reason. Fear.
I ‘d read The Diary of Anne Frank as an impressionable young girl of the same age. I found it terrifying to follow along Anne’s life path as she and her family stayed hidden away for years, trying to avoid being murdered at the rifle ends of the Nazis. Which, of course, ultimately was exactly what happened.
The lingering after effect of reading that book was that I never again went near anything related to the Holocaust. Yet now, here was one of my most valued friends suggesting I interview a man who lived but did not die at Auschwitz.
Knowing that through my 40- year journalist’s career, my interview process always resulted in my becoming intimately engaged with my subjects, I could not imagine the emotional turmoil this man’s stories would generate within me. Still, I felt an obligation to Patti to consider adding Frank Grunwald to my 64 and More list of interviewees. I told her I would think about it. Her reply was what ultimately inspired me to agree, “I think it would be an important interview for you.”
Frank Grunwald and I met at his home on Tuesday, March 16th—-a day that will forever stand out in my mind. As he welcomed me into his home, he led me to the living room and seated me in close proximity to a sculpture he’d created of a faceless female body. He explained that he’d dedicated the haunting artwork to his mother and brother who were herded to their deaths in the Auschwitz-Birkenau furnaces.
Amid that backdrop Frank and I shared four hours of our lives, interviewing about his family and the horrors of their concentration camp experiences. We talked, we laughed, our eyes welled with tears as Frank led me through his life beginning as a privileged child in Prague, to his family’s banishment to internment and concentration camps and ultimately his liberation by American Soldiers and a reuniting with his father.
At the end of our interview Frank and his lovely wife, Barbara, invited me to share lunch. Afterwards he gave me a tour of his artist’s studio where he had crafted the sculpture, along with other pieces of his artwork. One of those was an evocative drawing of a face, half in light, half in dark., titled, “The Survivor.”
Frank explained that his grandson has artistic talent. To encourage him, when ever he visits he brings art supplies and they draw together. One day as he and his grandson were creating, Frank said that he sketched this face. He continued that he didn’t know who it was, or why he drew it. He then asked my opinion.
Nervous to express myself, I took a deep breath and offered that it appeared to be someone conflicted between the dark and light….good and evil….of life. Emboldened, I added that perhaps it was a subconscious self portrait.
For a few moments, the two of us stood in silence, becoming immersed in the possibilities of the stark image. Then Frank turned to me and asked for my address. A bit startled, I hesitated until he explained that he had created a limited number of reproductions. He wanted to send one to me.
Recently, my grandaughter asked why I had this unusual work of art hanging in my living room. I told her my story about Frank Grunwald and the courage it took him to survive the Holocaust. I added that it also serves as a daily reminder for me to have the courage to do things that scare me, no matter how frightening they may seem.
And for that life wisdom and lesson I am forever grateful to Frank Grunwald and his art.