DIANA LERNER ז"ל

תגובה אחת

1. Diana

   Diana was determined to beat the bank. In 2007 An aggressive financial consultant at hsbc sold her a policy that when she turned 85 became a 10 year payout annuity in order to recoup her investment. Last year when she deliberated whether or not to undergo surgery for a cancerous tumor on her neck she was not yet ready to throw in the pillow, the one she had told me previously to just put over her face, and to continue to receive her meager return of $107 @ month.

   After that fiasco, while I am not financially savvy, I became her personal banker and she forwarded to me all the mail so that that she would receive her just dues.

   Diana was convinced that she was charmed. And indeed she was, but not because she was born with a caul on her head, a story she would retell numerous times whenever she got the chance, usually to doctors who diagnosed her with various ailments. It was a folktale. A caul Google defines as a veil, part of the amniotic sac, and people believed it was a sign of good luck or psychic powers.

   While she had no confidence in doctors as such, she would visit them often. Often I would accompany her and she would put aside her medical ailments and interview the doctors: where they came from, why they chose to study medicine, and why they chose that specific field. I was there to remind her that this was not a social visit.
   She would listen to their diagnosis, and two minutes later she would decide that they were incompetent and didn't know anything at all and were not to be trusted. Nonetheless, she was never afraid to undergo multiple surgeries, confident of her cure.

   This time, however, there was no surgery, and sadly no cure. She chose to stay at home, among the artifacts she loved, the key money apartment she was so proud of attaining in prime Tel Aviv location, the patio she loved to sit on and view the comings and goings of the neighbors.

   Diana lived a very rich life with her time being divided between New York and Tel Aviv, a life filled with unforgettable experiences,
   She travelled on her own to exotic places. Even after her memory started to decline, she could still recall names or people and places and events that played an important part of her life.

   In her lifetime, she was a courier for the Stern group, a social worker, a librarian and tour guide. She was fluent in four languages, English, Hebrew, French and Yiddish.

   But first and foremost, Diana was a journalist.
   She was a storyteller. She freelanced, documenting all her experiences in the English press both here and abroad, had many arlticles appear translated in the Hebrew press as well. She was often photographed with the fashion and political celebrities that she arranged to interview.

   There was little that gave Diana a greater thrill than having her name in print, as a byline, or her coming and goings mentioned in Greers column.

   As an aside the thought occurred to me that she would have been proud to see her own obituary in the Jslm post

   To claim her right to immortality , Diana self-published her own book, a book my sister Toby typed and edited tirelessly deciphering her hand written comments and typos. She celebrated her book launching with a party set in the ambience of Dervish, an art gallery of folklore and then promoted it by going on the lecture circuit, being invited by various groups to retell her stories. After that, she then decided she could do standup as well.

   Diana was the original recycler, before it became an ecological trend. She reused old envelopes to jot down notes and sometimes pen entire articles.

   She discovered the second hand shops where previously owned designer clothes were left to find new closets.

   And she generously recycled gifts obtained from press conferences and various persona. There were days when she was my major supplier of cosmetics and creams. And whenever I need a costume, there is always something in my closet that diana gave me that completed the look. There have been books, perfumes, games watches earring and other trinkets galore. There were paintings and etchings and posters. Today we all have something in our homes that once belonged to Diana.

   Diana discovered the flea market, a place to find exceptional furniture.

   She created sleepwear as street wear, long before guys wore their boxers as shorts, women wore slip dresses and designers created lounge wear to be worn anywhere.

   Diana was technologically challenged. She had difficulty accepting the fact that editors would no longer accept material that was not transmitted electronically, whatever that meant. She wouldn’t accept the fact that she needed to leave the house with a cell phone, since she always found a way to make a call. When I implored her, she finally acquiesced, however she didn’t know that it had to be turned on too.

   When she didn’t quite put the cordless phone properly in its cradle to charge, I got her to keep her cell plugged in as a backup. Diana was the only person I know who would leave a message on my voicemail until it timed out.
   She just needed to air her gripes, it didn’t matter that no one was on the other end.

   Diana once exclaimed to me that she was on the internet, though she had no concept of what that was. Her book was for sale on amazon, she agreed to be filmed for walla for a clip that would appear on utube as savta-chic. And she was even told she could find herself in the jpost archives online. It was all greek to her.

   I along, with my sisters and cousins I have grown up, or aged as the case may be, in the limelight of our aunt Diana, although at an early age we were instructed to drop the aunt.
   Probably because that made her feel old.
   While we have aged, she remained ageless
   She has maintained us as, her nieces as friends, much like those on FB, friends with whom you share your thoughts and deliberations, experiences, likes and dislikes.

   Not three years ago, when she turned 90. Dianas age was revealed as she entered her tenth decade, known as a nonagenerian….
   is that some one who doesn't age.?

   It's hard to imagine growing up without an aunt Diana. She was our auntie mame , eccentric, unpredictable, and unique.
   The aunt who treated me as an equal, a confident, who always shared her scheduled activities with me aired her complaints and consulted with me before her articles went to print.

   Diana always made me feel special. She always introduced me as her favorite niece, her beautiful niece. However it wasn't too long before I realized I had been played…..we were all her beautiful and favorite favorite nieces……

   Diana, recently celebrated another birthday with friends and family. It was a celebration of her great resilience stamina and joie d’vivre, her way of never giving up despite all the hardships and setbacks along the way. It was a real celebration, because the understood that the alternative wasn’t so great.

   Guided by her determination and optimism, Diana will serve as our role model defying age, refusing to modify her life style and always aspiring to meet the next challenge.

   I would like to express my family’s heartfelt thanks to geula and shaiby who helped to make her last month as comfortable as possible.

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