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Family History

Introduction by Susan Joan Rosen

My mother’s essays were written at Whitney Center, Hamden, Connecticut, for a writing group the Center organized for its residents. The group was led by an instructor, possibly associated with Yale University. If I recall correctly the members met weekly, each participant presenting a contribution. My mother enjoyed writing, and this weekly get-together was an event she looked forward to with considerable enthusiasm. Over the years—I do not know the precise year that her participation began—the group waxed and waned, and my mother, confronting numerous health problems, was unable for certain periods to participate. One of the benefits for my mother is that it gave her the opportunity to recall significant events in her life. There are extended accounts of her life in Berlin and also in the United States. Yet it is evident that as her world began to constrict, the subjects she selected were closer to home. But whatever the theme she chose, her indomitable character, her curiosity, her perceptive incisive observation is apparent, as is her personality and character. In reviewing these essays, I regret that I did not ask more questions about her life, but would she have told me what was in her heart of hearts? It seems as if she avoided certain topics, but then perhaps the group she participated in may have exercised a kind of silent peer censorship. Health, too, may have limited output. Alas, names are not mentioned in some essays. Understandably, in certain cases these are not recorded, but others inadvertently, I believe, were omitted. I would have liked to learn more about her professional career, her work as an historical medical researcher, as a ready ear and critic for my father’s ideas, professional life, and as his co-worker, not least, typing his extensive writings. And then there is the beloved rural house in Canterbury, Connecticut. This lovely part of their life is absent from her essays.

I am extraordinarily grateful for what is recalled, but castigate myself for not being more inquisitive and supportive in her endeavors.

17 September, 2007
Susan Joan Rosen

Beate Brigitta Caspari-Rosen
Born: March 14, 1910, Berlin, Germany
Died: July 8, 1995, Hamden, CT, USA

Autobiographical Essays

Beate Caspari-Rosen, MD (1910 - 1995)

Introduction

It is dangerous walking down memory lane and getting lost in the jungle of side-roads. No life follows a straight line, but the sun was always shining, and the birds were singing, and the flowers were blooming even in the deepest winter. What happened to that sophisticated girl who knew all the answers of right and wrong, of life and death. She read Tagore's love poems and Nietsche's philosophy, Plato, Marx, and Engels, and thought she knew it all. She who loved to dance into the early morning hours and flirted, an old fashioned word, which is now replaced with heavy words of “eye contact” and “body language.” Is that what we did?

One has to be careful when writing autobiographical notes not to overlook the heartache one experienced, the gray and rainy days, and disappointments that occur during one's lifetime.