Our Mom...Ilse

How much we take for granted. How often we think there is always tomorrow.

My Little Blue Book

I stopped to look for my little blue book; I stopped to look when Daddy died.

Ode to My Eyes

I lived three lives, Three times I died.

To Zus and Steven on the Eve of my Seventy-Fifth Birthday

I took seventy-four years for a walk. I took the bus to a quiet place

February 10, 1989

Birthdays are ONE thing To be “happy and nice,”

Table Reserved

In rain or heat On ice, through snow, WE show.

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To Us

Yom Hashoah and The First of June: Both will be soon.

Silence

It’s nothing one can share It’s for you alone to hear.

“Sold” Says the Sign

Another part of me is gone; And—if I thought That all I had to do

This Is Not Good-Bye!

“So long,” that is what’s going to be, And I honestly and truly hope You’ll visit me.

Afterword

In April, 1995, Ilse and 10 members of our family traveled to Holland and Germany to join about 80 other survivors and 120 of their family members to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Lost Train.

From the introduction and dedication of Charles Hess Wartime Memoirs

"...her heroic and unselfish attitude during our times of tribulation made everything I did possible..."

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