Yesterday was the third anniversary of my mother’s passing. We acknowledged the day with a traditional memorial candle and moments of thought and memories (not that we needed a special day for that).
 

As many of you know, Esther was a Holocaust survivor and an Honorary Gotham member. She spoke frequently of her experiences, including many talks to Gotham. (The picture is of Esther and Fred after a speech to Gotham’s members at the Friars Club.)
 

Esther was also an avid reader and left an impressive library, including many books of Jewish and Holocaust-related interest. You can tell a lot from the books a person surrounds themselves with.
 

When it was time to clean out her home, the books presented an insurmountable problem. I couldn’t handle it.
 

What would Esther have wanted done with her books?
 

I took a few books that were personally inscribed. I think she would have wanted that.
 

Thankfully, my daughter, Mea, stepped up and packed the books for safekeeping at her home.
 

And the question of the books persisted.
 

After great thought and effort, earlier this week Mea shipped off the majority of the books to their new homes: The Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, the Holocaust & Human Rights Center in White Plains-where Esther was on the speaker’s bureau, and Mea’s temple’s library.
 

Now we know what Esther would have wanted done with her books.