On Tuesday, I eavesdropped on my Mother speaking to about 50 Gothamites and guests at the Friar's Club about her experiences as a Holocaust survivor. I say "eavesdrop" somewhat in jest, because I was in the audience and in plain sight.

No matter how many times I have heard the stories, there is always something new. Perhaps I have heard it before but at this hearing it has a different nuance or meaning to me. Flo has a theory that every time my Mother speaks, she recalls something that she never remembered before. Those who heard my Mother on Tuesday will recall that she mentioned a German soldier who, after the war, crossed her path, unarmed and in retreat, and gave her a piece of bread. On Tuesday, my Mother told me that she had never recalled that incident until she was speaking earlier that afternoon.

Getting back to my feeling that I was eavesdropping: There's a difference in hearing my Mother speak to others. Perhaps because she is my Mother, my sense is that she still tries to protect me when I ask and she tells me the stories directly. Still the son (and that makes me smile). When I eavesdrop, I get a different perspective. I also put myself in the shoes of not being her son. I listen, with others, to a history that is not necessarily part of my own (although, in a sense, there is no escaping that it is a fundamental part of my being).

So, thanks Mom...and Gotham...for letting me eavesdrop