Raquel Sherman: A Life of Resilience
Some believe that people's destinies are written before they are even born. Raquel Sherman lived with her mother, father, and two older brothers in Kishinev, Bessarabia, enjoying the comforts of a good life. Her father, a traveling salesman, worked in different cities and began to worry about the news of the European pogroms. Concerned for the safety of his family, Raquel's father decided to emigrate with them to a distant country where his wife's relatives lived - with economic difficulties, but far from the anti-Semitic threat. Raquel arrived in Argentina in 1926, at the age of five, leaving behind the comforts of a good life, familiar landscapes, her mother tongue, friends and relatives, escaping the intolerant hatred towards Jews. It is an inescapable mystery whether it was a paradox of fate that Raquel died as a result of the same irrational hatred.
Her life here was not easy. Three months after emigrating, her father died. Some time later, her mother became ill and Raquel moved in with her aunts, waiting for her mother to return. A few years later, her older brother, whom she loved deeply, died at the age of twenty-eight. Raquel met her future husband when she was very young, married, had two children, but fate again dealt her another tragedy, and she was widowed at the age of 36.
Raquel knew how to get ahead, eventually and in maturity. The attack found her, curiously, living in a time of fullness: she worked as an administrative employee of the Israeli Embassy, a job that gave her satisfaction and financial solvency.
She has a faithful group of friends, with whom she goes out to listen to classical music, to the theater and to the cinema, one of her great passions. They even plan to travel together to Europe, a dream that remains unfulfilled after the fateful March 17, 1992.
Raquel’s daughter and son are well, they prosper, they build their own families and give her the title that fills her with the most pride and joy: grandmother. Raquel is a special grandmother, active, present; one of those who not only take care of their grandchildren by being there, but who also support them through play, song, look and heart.
Discreet, neat, detailed, attentive, but above all warm and very dear, Raquel was a resilient person who was able to overcome the blows and find enjoyment in the company of her loved ones, in the pride of a job well done, in the pleasure of seeing her grandchildren grow up and of transmitting to them the essence of the things she believed in.