Barbara traveled to Vancouver for a number of years to teach finance courses there. She was very thoughtful about her lectures, and spent a great deal of time revising them and trying to improve them after every semester.

She keeps this picture hanging on the wall in her study, of her and the students in one of her Vancouver classes. She told me that the entire class took her out to dinner, and they tried to teach her how to use chopsticks.

When I took the picture out of the frame, I discovered that she had labeled the student's names. Despite being framed, the picture had unfortunately been damaged by moisture.

One day my mother came across my father's gun in the basement of their house on Ridge Road in Grosse Pointe Farms, MI. She looked into the barrel and wondered if it was loaded. She thought to herself, "Vasily would never keep a loaded gun the the house," and was about to pull the trigger.

But she remembered that her uncle Irv had told her never to look into the barrel of a gun while shooting it.  She pointed it at the floor and pulled the trigger. BAM!  She made a hole in the wall of the basement. It was indeed loaded.

Yanni was a toddler at that time and I was not yet born.  If she had not remembered and heeded Irv's advice, Yanni would have lost his mother before he ever got a chance to know her, and I would not exist at all.  Most of the time we survive our stupid mistakes, but some have consequences that are tragic and permanent.  My mom escaped unscathed.  Thank you Irv, for the gift of life to myself and my mother.  He was a noble person with nothing but good in his heart. 

Mom made the early years of my childhood a happy time, full of discovery, with her smiling face in the background. Her smile was encouragement, and her method of correction was explanation and gentle instruction. I can remember Mom's smile a thousand times, and very little anger or conflict in our home.

Here she is, listening to me, treating my childish thoughts with seriousness and consideration. She was my first example of how to live in this world, to interact with others, and to deal with adversity.

For me this was the safest, warmest, most wonderful place to be.  Melvin, thanks for posting. 

This is the first of Al Burstein's 8mm home movies. I took the title from the box that held the movie. The problem is that Barbara was only 4 in 1946. Also I would not have been born until April so I would not have been to Barbara's 4th birthday. Probably this took place in 1948.