Nechama Birnbaum knew since she was a little girl that she would write her grandmother’s story. Her friend’s grandmas brought them presents. Hers brought her stories, and stories were her favorite thing of all. When her grandmother told her how she would rip petals off flowers to see if the boy she liked, liked her back, and how she would crumple up the flower that landed on “he loves me not,” and start again until it landed on “he loves me”; that was when Nechama knew for sure she would write her stubborn, determined grandma’s story. She knew her grandma’s tenacity started long before she told her friends in Auschwitz that she was going home from there.

Nechama lives in Brooklyn NY with her husband and daughters and nearby her redhead grandma. She is currently finishing her master’s degree in nutrition.