This St. Louis family story will break your heart
Look—I'm gonna be real with you. There are some stories you read that just stick with you, days later, weeks later. And the one about St. Louis poet Jason Sommer and his father, a Holocaust survivor, losing those memories? That's one of 'em. We all got folks we love, parents, grandparents, and you hold onto their stories like gold. Imagine those stories, the ones that shaped a whole generation, just... fading. That's what Jason realized was happening, his father’s vivid accounts of surviving the Holocaust, the ones he'd spent decades sharing, were starting to disappear.
### The Weight of Memory
This ain't just about one family on the south side or out in Creve Coeur, though it hits close to home for anyone who's seen a loved one deal with memory loss. This is about the *weight* of history. The Holocaust Museum here in St. Louis, out on Lindbergh, is a place that reminds us every day what we can't forget. And to think of those first-hand accounts, the ones that connect us directly to that history, slipping away? It’s a gut punch. You know how important memory is to us here. We fight over what Highway 40 used to be called, for crying out loud. We remember the '67 Cardinals, the '99 Rams, the '11 Cards, the '19 Blues – because those memories tie us together, make us who we are.
* This story reminds us how fragile personal history can be. * It highlights the urgency of preserving the stories of Holocaust survivors, before it's too late. * It connects to a broader St. Louis community deeply invested in remembering and learning from the past, evident in our local Holocaust Museum and annual veteran services.
I'm gonna be honest, reading that, it just makes you want to go sit down with your own folks, right now, and just listen. Really listen. Because those stories, especially the hard ones, are what make us human. That's the Lou — we're still here and we're not leaving.
Marcus and the crew talk about this kinda stuff on the regular — check 'em out live at mornings.live.