Eva's Story: A Life Worth Celebrating

Ninety-two-year-old Eva remembers the warm family life she enjoyed growing up in Budapest, Hungary with her sister and her four brothers.  Yet her joy is forever shadowed by the memory of the Holocaust.

In 1941, her family was separated.  The men were deported to labor camps.  None survived.  The women were safely hidden during the Shoah, but the effects of the war left her sister gravely ill.  Unable to care for her son, she asked Eva to raise him. His death in 1992, just four years after the death of Eva’s husband, devastated Eva.

Longing for friendship, she began to visit a JDC-supported Day Care Center for Seniors. She quickly established a rapport there with other Holocaust survivors and found comfort and understanding among them. Today, she enjoys the center’s cultural activities, especially its concerts.  She also takes full advantage of the center’s "Talking Library," which wonderfully compensates for her deteriorating vision.

With newfound joy, Eva has begun to plan her 93^rd birthday party, when she will celebrate the triumph of friendship and happiness over life’s greatest tragedies. The Day Care Center has become Eva’s new home.