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 Welcome
to our Featured Elder Page. When Elder Hedwig was in college, she read a book that changed her life: "The Little Prince," by Antoine de Saint-Exupery. It opened with a story of a child who drew pictures of a boa constrictor that had swallowed an elephant. However, whenever he showed his drawings to the "grownups," they all thought it was a hat.
This book is very much about seeing what lies within. She was so impressed that she read it to every man she thought might make a good husband, shocking her mother: "How can you use a book to test future husbands?" She could and did.
Hedwig wanted to marry a man with whom she could share values. An only child, she had been quite lonely. In addition, she was a minority -- one of only three Jews in her small-town school during World War II in a community with troubling anti-Semitic behavior. When she was 14, on the happiest day of her life, the
family moved.
High school and college were exciting, but she attended college as if it were a high school extension. In those days, the goal was to get married. She recalls, "Some girls saved up money for just one year, invested in Cashmere sweaters, and set off to catch a husband.
Hedwig caught someone -- got engaged -- but in her senior year, threw him back. So, when she graduated -- as an English major -- she had spent her time reading stories and not preparing for any profession. She then entered the advertising world. This ended after writing a series of newspaper ads for Chicken Delight (which had three chicken cartoons) and a listing of places to call to get the dinners delivered. She ran the three chickens across the top of the ad, on the
bottom, on each side, until she chickened out. She decided to go back to school -- this time taking education courses as well as an MA in English -- her first real-life decision.
She met her husband on her first university teaching job -- both English professors. Later they were also both student newspaper advisers. She had found a colleague, playmate, and friend as well as a husband. With his encouragement, she returned to graduate school and earned a Ph.D. when she was in her 40's and
also wrote a text book then.
During their 28 years together, they had two daughters. Hedwig's husband lived to see his first daughter wed, the birth of the first two (of his four) grandchildren, and the engagement of the second daughter before he was felled by a sudden heart attack at age 55. He also got to see the first daughter begin her career as a CPA (she is now a corporate executive) and the younger one well on her way in medical school (she is now a psychiatrist).
During the year prior to his death, he taught in China and met a professor teaching a course in Jewish American authors who had never met a Jew. He was the first and the two became such fast friends that the Chinese scholar came to teach here and lived with them, changing all their lives. Hedwig's husband died soon after and the Chinese scholar returned to his country to become a leading expert on Jews. Hedwig began working with him, editing books, publishing a newsletter, raising funds for a Chinese Encyclopedia Judaica, and furthering the study of this religion as an academic subject in China.
When Hedwig retired, her life became even busier. five trips to China, becoming Theater Critic for a local newspaper chain, playing percussion with two bands -- a Klezmer group and New Horizons, a band for senior citizens -- teaching courses in a community college emeritus program, writing and lecturing.
When she had entered the university in 1952, Hedwig had been told -- "No Girls in the Marching Band" -- which not only dismayed her then, but dismays her now when she realizes that she never even thought of the injustice. It makes her wonder what thoughts she is still incapable of thinking today.
After her husband's death, Hedwig began a relationship with a man she had dated before she met him. The two families had been friends for over 30 years. This relationship lasted for 15 good years before he was diagnosed with Alzheimers. Hedwig ultimately became his legal guardian, and cared for him until his death. During this time, she began writing for the Elder Circle -- and it was a life-saver, giving her respite from her own pain and anguish and providing an outlet
for helping others. She sees it as a wonderful opportunity to pay back for all the good things in her own life. She chose the name Hedwig, of course, because it was the owl in the Harry Potter series, and she is very much a science fiction/fantasy fan (in her dissertation, teaching, and writing).
Hedwig has just completed, and self published, her autobiography, "No Girls I the Marching Band: A Memoir," for her children, grandchildren, and those who will follow.
She still believes that the message of "The Little Prince" works throughout life, and plans to put a phrase from that book, the words "Forever responsible for those she tamed" on her tombstone. Which is better than the words her kindergarten teacher said about her, "More speed than accuracy," which her younger daughter told her she couldn't have for an epitaph because people would think she had driven into a tree.
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