One of the blessings of the Internet is ‘finding’ new friends. Sally Wendkos Olds is one of those great Internet finds for me.  I ‘met’ her quite a few months ago and have enjoyed our occasional e-mail exchange and reading her blog.  She’s a remarkable woman!

Sally has three daughters, Nancy, Jennifer, and Dorrie.  She has five grandchildren: Anna and Nina (who live only 2 hours away from her in New Jersey) and Stefan, Maika, and Lisa (who live far, far away in Germany).  And, Sally and her husband have been married for 52 years!  What a great example that is to us.

Sally has written 12 books and a plethora of articles.  She has conducted numerous interviews of Holocaust survivors and of men and women who served in the Allied forces during World War II. She worked with the Oral History Department at Columbia University and interviewed people affected by the attacks on the World Trade Center.

She recently published the book Super Granny and sent me a copy.  I wrote notes to myself in the margins.  I underlined things.  I circled things.  I highlighted things.  I put exclamation marks in the margins.  (How can a person read a book without a pen . . .?)  Now, I have a whole new arsenal of ideas of activities to do with my grandchildren.  (I just can’t wait for Spencer to get big enough — and for our daughter to have her baby and for THAT grandbaby to grow up . . . )

Reading Super Granny felt like I was sitting at the kitchen table having a warm and personal conversation with Sally.  By the end of the book, I felt that not only did I know Sally better but I also became friends with the grannies that were highlighted in the book.

After reading the book, I wanted to interview Sally and post the interview here.  The other night, we chatted via Skype.  She shared a little about herself, her background, how she decided to write the book, and some experiences that she has had with her grandchildren.  (I’m amazed that she ran a marathon at age 60 and one New Year’s Eve she jogged around Central Park with her grandson, Stefan.  Like I said, she’s remarkable!)

So, without further audieu, here’s the interview.  It lasts about 20 minutes.  It might take a moment or two to load so have patience.  (I say that tongue-in-cheeck becuase I’m not a patient person . . .)  Because I used Skype, Sally sounds like she’s far away.  Next time, I’ll try another technology to record the interviews to see if I can get better quality sound!

Click here to listen to the interview: Super Granny by Sally Wendkos Olds

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