Back in 2006, I painted a portrait of my friend Herman's mother. This is the pencil sketch I did to prepare for the painting. When I was growing up in Pueblo, the Sussers lived around the corner and his mother was very nice to his ornery little playmate. I was fascinated by Lili's musical voice and her accent. (She and her husband were survivors of the concentration camps in Poland, an experience she later wrote about.) At the time, she was just my friend's mom who had a pretty smile and a great laugh. And I was blown away by Mrs. Susser's snacks like rice krispie bars and caramel apples from scratch, especially around Halloween. The irony that these treats were created by a concentration camp survivor was lost on me at the time. But in my defense, I will point out that down the block, at my house, about 80% of the cooking was done by my Russian grandma, whose Ashkenazi desserts were coffee cake and maybe mandel bread if we were lucky, so those "All-American" treats at the Sussers were amazing to me! Lili has been on my mind lately, so I decided to to post this to wish her "refuah schlema" (swift and complete healing).
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