a sense of face
frank hoffer
frank, 1928
My grandfather died 22 years ago today. This summer, I visited Vienna, his hometown. I thought a lot about him and about whether he had walked the same routes, seen the same buildings, gone to the same cafes. I stood outside his childhood home, wandered around his neighborhood, loitered in front of his father’s store [...]
frank and ethel, 1990
Thanksgiving 1990? Sometime right around when this photo was taken (I think this must have been Thanksgiving or sometime around then), my grandparents gave me an aquamarine ring as a Christmas/Hanukkah present. They died not that long after and for the last 21 years, I have spent almost every minute wearing that ring. It has [...]
sherman oaks, california, 1949
In 1949, it snowed in the San Fernando Valley and by “snowed,” I mean snowed: snow fell and it actually stayed on the ground. My grandfather Frank took pictures – an entire roll of pictures, in fact – of the snow that fell around his family’s house in Sherman Oaks that day.
the hoffer family, 1966
In my family, we have certain idiosyncratic terms that no one else in the world uses besides us. I’m sure lots of families do. My sister and I did not realize until some few years ago, however, that this was actually the case. We thought everyone walked around calling the National Council of Jewish Women [...]
ethel, becky and frank, 1981
My mother’s parents were taken away from me 17 years ago this past Tuesday, and it will never not hurt. Ethel Kalisch Hoffer (1918-1991), me, Frank Markus Hoffer (1909-1991)
franz, march 1930
Today is my grandfather Frank’s birthday. It would have been his 98th birthday, but it isn’t because he had a heart attack at 82 while driving to work. I still don’t really like driving down my grandparents’ street (which also happens to be a main thoroughfare) on my way elsewhere, because I don’t want to [...]
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