My grandparents left me an extraordinary legacy from their values, their lives and their work. They worked so hard and lived in such trying conditions that they all died before I was five years old, so I have only slight direct memories of them. But I do have gifts from them in what they gave to my parents and my parents gave to me. Some of those gifts were from what they did, and some were of the lessons we learned so that we could live better lives than they did. I believe that we do not need to romanticize the past in order to learn from it.
My paternal grandfather David ran a haberdashery store that initially was successful, and eventually became a small department store that sold clothing and dry goods in Syracuse, New York. My grandmother Anne worked in the store. The store did well for a while, but then lost everything around the time of the Depression, so my grandparents moved to Brooklyn to live other family members. Throughout all of this, David and Anne remained industrious and bright – they valued education for their children and set high standards for them.
My maternal grandfather, Izzy Weisbard, was remembered by many as a selfish and self-centered man who did not treat others kindly. He thought my mother (who had been a valedictorian of her high school) should not go to college because women weren’t supposed to be educated. He was constantly trying to find a way to make a living, often taking advantage of others and not always working legally. I know this experience in my family’s work history has had a profound influence on my progressive values and my activism.
My grandparents did raise remarkable children. My mother was a light in this world who believed in fighting for what was right. As a young person, she tried to organize the workers in a department store in which she worked. She supported my father as he went to medical school, and after my brothers and I were in high school, she went back to school and became a special education teacher. My father became a physician with a focus on those with physical disabilities and the elderly, and finally a medical ethicist.
As an organizer working for social and economic justice, I carry with me my grandparents and parents’ belief that we should treat others as we wished to be treated, and that we should actively work to build a better world. I have tried to pass this on to our kids and they are passing it on to theirs, our grandkids. And so it goes across the generations, to build a better world.
Heather is the founding Director and President of the Midwest Academy, an organization training social change leaders and organizers. Photo: Heather Booth’s paternal grandparents, Anne and David, who ran a small department store before the Depression struck.
