Esther Safran Foer, I WANT YOU TO KNOW WE'RE STILL HERE

Esther Safran Foer, I WANT YOU TO KNOW WE'RE STILL HERE

Esther: Yes, I think so, maybe because so much of it was unknown, maybe because I grew up with no grandmothers, with no aunts and uncles, no first cousins. People around me that I went to school with had all of those things. I was always digging. Maybe it was because my parents wouldn't talk about it. You always want to know what they won't tell you. I was always digging. I'm still digging. My memory jars, as they are, which look a little like an art installation in my living room, include jars that have dirt from mass graves but also from beautiful times. My seven-year-old grandson brought me back a baggy of sand from a trip to Greece because I don't have that and he wanted to share his memory with me. A lot of them are really beautiful happy memories. When one of our sons got married, I decorated the plate. You know the tradition of breaking a plate. The two mothers break a plate. It's a family commitment to the couple, to the marriage. After we broke the plate, I thought, oh, that’ll be perfect in a jar. It's a beautiful memory every time I look at it.