Judith Levy and her husband have raised three daughters, and now have five grandchildren. Telling them how their grandparents met comes easily for Levy; she’s a natural storyteller with a quick wit and an engaging sense of humor. Blessed with the gift of gab, Levy was surprised to discover, while attending a memoir-writing course at Florida Atlantic University some 40 years ago, that not all grandmothers have family tales tripping off their tongues.
She reports: “When I came into the class, the room was loaded with grandparents who wanted to put their memories down for their grandchildren. But I could see that they were having trouble doing it, because they weren’t writers .” That realization led to a best-selling book, Grandmother Remembers: A Written Heirloom for My Grandchild. The book has spawned a series of related books . Grandmother Remembers” is essentially “a baby book backwards,” as Levy puts it. An illustrated album, it has spaces for photographs, but its pages are mainly filled with writing prompts to help a grandmother put down her memories on paper for posterity.
As much as her books are predicated on the importance of writing down memories, Levy admits that actions are ultimately more important than words. She advises grandparents to make memories with their grandchildren by doing things with them.
Judith Levy and her husband, Herb, were named Grandparents of the year in 2007 for the state of Florida.
Artist and illustrator Noelle Giddings's work has been in galleries, television, comic books, and graphic novels. Her pictures for this book were created in her studios in Manhattan and Sag Harbor.
