My mom, Olga Grilli, a”h, gave us 90 years, but for me it was not enough. Facing debilitating renal failure, Mom didn’t want to continue treatment. But I insisted. You see, besides being a heroine to me and my sisters, Mom was part of a little-known episode in the history of the Holocaust. At age 11, she was given the gift of life, at a time when so many other Czech Jewish children never had a chance. Didn’t she owe it to them to continue to live at all costs? Or maybe I was deluding myself – I just didn’t want to let her go.

Mom fought until the end only to have her body fail her on July 4, 2018. Less than a year later, my wife Susan and I traveled to England, to the small town of Croston. We were there to dedicate a plaque honoring a couple from that town who had taken Mom in to save her from the Nazis.

Now that you know the end of the story, let me start from the beginning. Holocaust tales are never ending, and this is ours.