Thursday, February 25, 2010
It is sad that I am the only one signing this book so far. However, Margaret's father, William Lux Hickstein, passed away long ago and her older sister, Beatrice, aka Noonie, an engineer who developed radar for the US in WWII, and made many other significant contributions to science, also passed away several years ago. My mother was Margaret's informal 'godmother' but she has not kept in touch due to her age. She is now 88. Margaret's sister Noonie helped sponsor my college and so she was like a godmother to me. I only found out that Margaret had died due to scanning the internet for the name Hickstein. I imagine she died quite alone in terms of family, but hope she had some friends at her home. I know Margaret had a disability and must have suffered for it. I had a brother with a disability which served as a barrier to him assimilating with normal society, and he suffered. Margaret is a connection, and I never met her, but feel that since that connection is by blood, it is important to ensure that someone signed this book. I'd like to add that my mother, in the past, had expressed feelings of guilt at not being able to visit her, though the real reason was that she didn't drive, and didn't like to break from her routine, or travel. They communicated by mail and occasionally sent small things to each other. She lived through the depression as a child, as her father was forced out of work and the family lived in a tent somewhere in NJ for a while. Margaret was actually my father's (William), mother's (also Margaret), brother's (William Lux Hickstien) daughter, so she was a cousin of my father (who passed in 2002). I have the same middle name as her father. At least now she is free of her disabilities, and I hope she had a happy life despite them. May she rest is peace!
