When Lila’s mother was pregnant, she escaped Nazi Germany and settled in Brooklyn. Lila was born a few months later.
Some years after, while at home, when Lila was 12 years old, Lila’s father collapsed in front of her from cardiac arrest.
Years past, and Lila’s mother passed away, never recovering from the trauma of the Holocaust and premature death of her husband.
Mourning, Lila began to paint many mauve-colored paintings on costly, richly textured Belgium canvasses, based upon black and white photos snapped in Brooklyn in the 1940s. The photos preserved images of her relatives who had fled Europe before the war; and those relatives who had survived Nazi death camps.
Five years after Lila had lost her mother, Lila stopped painting in mauve; she jettisoned the black and white photos; and she began painting in color, mostly of beaches where she walked on Fire Island.
Now, the world was filled with color for Lila, but the mauve
sometimes would return.
This month, the law center obtained (through
another foundation) a hearing aid for Lila, who is latent deaf, having lost
most of her hearing as an adult. Before the hearing aid, Lila hardly could hear
when others spoke; she felt inadequate; isolated; and diminished. Today, Lila
hears; and she feels renewed.