“Thank you, Mrs. Brandman, for opening up your emotions and modeling coping with the past and confronting the present”
Elisheva Lock’s masterful piece on Mrs. Bronia Brandman is so much more than a story of fortitude, faith, and strength in the past and present. It’s a remarkable window into the experience, mind, and heart of an honest woman who speaks directly about her crises, her trauma, and her coping skills.
Mrs. Brandman has been a very active agent in her own healing from trauma (even if it’s not complete), her own management of guilt (even if it took 60 years), and in advocacy (despite the negativity and anti-Semitism she sees today). She took action to acquire an education, and to improve her inner self. She continues to take action and opens up about mistakes she made along the journey.
Positivity, one of her tools, colors the account from start to finish, with gratefulness for the seven times she was saved during the war as well as the support from her remaining family during the postwar years. Despite the fact that the trauma never goes away, her initiative and effort is a shining example of the work of resilience. This is real living.
Resilience isn’t about bouncing back; it’s about processing the “choiceless choices,” and choosing to be positive while confronting the negative. Thank you, Mrs. Brandman, for opening up your emotions and modeling coping with the past and confronting the present.
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