In the novel Gitel’s Freedom, the character of Gitel is based on my late mother whose Yiddish name was Itta Gitel. As in the novel, her life was filled with many setbacks and struggles. As a child and especially as a teenager, I didn’t really appreciate the extent of the resilience she needed to cope with everything that she was experiencing. But, luckily, the real Gitel lived to age 90, which gave me ample time as an adult to appreciate her and to realize how much worse my young life would have been if she had not managed as well as she did. She indeed is my heroine!