LIBBY M. MELTON, z"l
YAHRZEIT, Jewish Calendar
February 23, 1969 Sunday, 5 Adar, 5729
Libby Mossman sent HS graduation photo 1935?
to Uncle Oscar Bell, Aunt Rose and their son, Louis aka Sonny.
(Louis gifted a photo copy back to daughter Joy Krauthammer in 2012.)
Libby was one of two Jews in the school.
Grandma Ethel took Libby to Sunday Hebrew school by trolley into Atlanta from Decatur.
Libby Mossman 1940
+Joy.jpg)
Libby Mossman sent HS graduation photo 1935?
to Uncle Oscar Bell, Aunt Rose and their son, Louis aka Sonny.
(Louis gifted a photo copy back to daughter Joy Krauthammer in 2012.)
Libby was one of two Jews in the school.
Grandma Ethel took Libby to Sunday Hebrew school by trolley into Atlanta from Decatur.
Libby Mossman
Libby Mossman
Libby Mossman
Libby Mossman
Ketubah, Libby Mossman, Joseph Meltzer Melton 1944
(Libby died 1969 in NY. Joe died 1999 in Sarasota, Fla.)
Libby Mossman & Joseph Nathan Meltzer
Wedding Ketubah May 30, 1944, Washington, DC
9 Sivan 5704
Leba (ayin) Bat/Daughter of Avraham (Abe/Avram) HaKohen (and Etel)
Yosef Natan Bar/son Chania Hayim
+Joy.jpg)
LIBBY MOSSMAN MELTON,
photo by Joy
I'm grateful that when I visited in Aug. 2009, my old home in Queens, NY, Brooklyn younger first cousin Naomi Jolkovsky graciously drove me to visit my mom-- Libby's grave, in Bergen, New Jersey.
You can see the seagull on the gravestone that Faye designed because our mom loved seagulls.
The broken tree image is because Libby died too young at age 49 from metastatic lung cancer at Mt. Sinai Hospital, NY.
Ethel Mossman, z'l, was with her daughter Libby that night and every day for six months prior during the lengthy half-year hospitalization. The funeral was a rainy day.
Very sadly for Libby, and very sadly for her daughters, we were not told a name for Mom/Libby's disease or anything about it for several months while she was hospitalized. We were 'not allowed' by medical staff at Mt. Sinai Hospital to discuss with her, the medical situation--cancer, thus we were not allowed to say, 'good-bye'. - Joy (with tears)
CEDAR PARK CEMETERY, Paramus, N.J.
buried 02/24/69
Par. 14B, Sec. 125, Lot 16, Lin 1.
GARMENT SALESMEN GUILD
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
I say Kaddish for Leba bat Avram v' Etel bat Perle bat Etel.
On Libby's 50th Yahrzeit ~ 5 Adar 5779 and also Feb. 23, 2019
Yesterday my younger sister Faye and I went to the Skirball, a cultural museum, and I consider that in Mom's memory, because that is what we three would do together in Manhattan. There weren't museums in Queens.
When Mom died at age 49 after suffering years of great pain from sciatica and probably from the cancer that killed her, I found a hand-written note in her beautiful dark wood wide dresser drawer. Her writing said not to feel badly for her because her life had been full. I think a point she missed is that the lives of my sisters and me weren’t filled with her. As an adult and a mom, I never had a mother to include in my life and all that encompasses as a daughter. As a teen, I was too busy being a teenager to spend time with my mom. I greatly appreciated the moms of my friends, when I was a teen; Theresa Lenihan, Frieda Genberg (I think a Holocaust surviver), and Mrs. Sue Kaplan. I always called her “Mrs. Kaplan” until she died.
As a grown woman, I have found the most dear blessed friends a generation older, all born around the time of my mom, and I adopted them, z”l, and spent part of every day individually with them, sharing love. Lilian my NY friend and former employer: We would visit each other across the country and travel together, Shirley (my very first friend in California and weaving buddy), Amy (quiet Japanese neighbor), Lisa, Ruth, Judy and Edith, all, deep and wide friendships, z”l from first meeting until their deaths from old age. My tears were heavy and long with loss and mourning for all. Powerful memories. As with my own peers, we shared many joyous interests, activities, laughter, spiritual learning, deep conversations and creativity and love of nature. I greatly miss my close and wise friends, and as dear Edith would say, "BFF, Best Friends Forever". Edith died less than a year ago. Even at age 94, in addition to calling me every morning at sunrise, Edith signed her computer e-mails to me with BFF.
All but Judy (childless), had children, daughters my age. I heard that my friends considered me a daughter. (I would scoff at that; I was their friend, not their daughter.) They were made Honorary Aunties to my first granddaughter and they all loved my daughter, who would loyally visit them when she was in LA.
Maybe my mom is meeting my friends in Heaven along with her own limited friendships (as she was a reclusive artist.) They would have liked each other. Immensely, I loved them all. Friends closer than blood or in-laws. Exactly one week ago my mother-in-law Thea, z”l, died at age 97, 10 Adar, and I never had the shared deep true friendship, love, fun, understanding, joy and respect as with my bright, lively friends, her same age.
With sympathy, I watched them all as loving and dedicated caregivers and as they become widows, losing late in life, their spouses. (Mine had died at only age 59.) Like my in-laws, my friends also were from Europe, and some too were Holocaust escapees, and with a zest for life. My mom's life was also creative, but more serene and isolated, and she died at about half the age of my older friends, and half a century ago.
So many Adar yahrzeits in my family, so it must be that G*d needed joy in Adar and brought back Home, good neshamahs.
Love, JOY
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Libby's 50th YAHRZEIT, 5 Adar
Shared with all maternal mishpucha 4AM as I write on Mom, Libby's, z"l, 50th !!!! Hebrew yahrzeit. She died around this time. Grandma was with her through the night at New York's Mount Sinai Hospital, expecting this ending to her daughter's life. Fifty years gone is longer than Mom was alive, having died at age 49. Little light is lit.
On 5 Adar, the 50th Hebrew yahrzeit, of my mom, Libby, Leba bat Avraham v’Etel bat Perl bat Etel, I share this link with you, filled with some photos of my mom that most of you didn’t know.
Spending my mom Libby's, z"l 50th Hebrew yahrzeit at Brandeis-Bardin with Valley Beth Shalom, N'Shama Minyan. I used to read Torah, Parshat Terumah at shuls each year for a few years in Mom's memory. It rained heavily the day we buried Mom, Libby in N.J. (long limo ride from Queens) and it's been raining in L.A. Mom was only 49 in 1969. Spent 6 miserable months in New York’s Mt. Sinai Hospital. I did not visit often. I was in college and it was a long bus and subway ride and walk from the train station. The head MD had told me that if I discuss cancer with my mom, the staff will through me out. It was very sad for me to be present with mom, and know she was ill and dying and not be allowed to be honest. Maybe I wrote this earlier... but one day I recall stopping at a shop along the walk and buying some thumb-nail sized sea shells and bringing them to Mom. I lied to her and said that when she returned home, I'd love it if she made me cufflinks. There was NO saying "good-bye".
Before that Mom was a very creative artist in many mediums, and a poet, and she loved Cape Cod, the ocean and finding sea shells, and floating in water. Grateful she drove us to ocean when we were kids, even teens. At age 16 Mom was the book reviewer for the Atlanta Constitution. Bright woman but no formal education, unlike her younger siblings. During WW2 she worked at the Pentagon and never told us what happened during the Holocaust.
I say Kaddish for Leba bat Avram v' Etel bat Perle bat Etel.
(I made fun of her thick southern accent.) Wish I had known what she was saying in Yiddish to my dad, z"l.
Warms my heart to see that many of her interests and skills became mine. I only like her color green in my garden. Mom was a fine gardener and shared her plants with the neighbors. Hours ago I shared my fig tree scions, barren branches with others to plant in their gardens. L'Dor V' Dor.
Mom loved her southern Dog Wood tree with its more horizontal branches and white blossoms in front of our NY home. Wonder if tree was the only Dog Wood in NY. I'm surprised she didn't plant a southern Magnolia tree. I regret that we were not closer so I could know her better. Mom is in Heaven with her mother, z"l, and my older sister, and of course Dad and other family who loved her.
Gratitude to Brooklyn cousin Naomi for driving me to mom’s grave about a decade ago, when I visited NY. Enjoy the photos above and below.
Love, Joy 5 Adar 5779
On Libby's 50th Yahrzeit ~ 5 Adar 5779 and also Feb. 23, 2019
Tonight is the secular Erev February 23, 2019 2am - 5 Adar 50th yahrzeit of my mom, Libby, z"l, so I have opportunity to share a photo of the two of us. (Think I look like my dad.) Mom was the family photographer so don't think I have any more of her as mom. I had wondered the next day after her 1969 death how my beloved Grandma knew that Mom would die that night at Mount Sinai Hospital. Grandma stayed overnight at the hospital, I guess sitting up in a small chair. She had been visiting us from Atlanta for some weeks, sitting every day by her dying daughter.
Yesterday my younger sister Faye and I went to the Skirball, a cultural museum, and I consider that in Mom's memory, because that is what we three would do together in Manhattan. There weren't museums in Queens.
When Mom died at age 49 after suffering years of great pain from sciatica and probably from the cancer that killed her, I found a hand-written note in her beautiful dark wood wide dresser drawer. Her writing said not to feel badly for her because her life had been full. I think a point she missed is that the lives of my sisters and me weren’t filled with her. As an adult and a mom, I never had a mother to include in my life and all that encompasses as a daughter. As a teen, I was too busy being a teenager to spend time with my mom. I greatly appreciated the moms of my friends, when I was a teen; Theresa Lenihan, Frieda Genberg (I think a Holocaust surviver), and Mrs. Sue Kaplan. I always called her “Mrs. Kaplan” until she died.
As a grown woman, I have found the most dear blessed friends a generation older, all born around the time of my mom, and I adopted them, z”l, and spent part of every day individually with them, sharing love. Lilian my NY friend and former employer: We would visit each other across the country and travel together, Shirley (my very first friend in California and weaving buddy), Amy (quiet Japanese neighbor), Lisa, Ruth, Judy and Edith, all, deep and wide friendships, z”l from first meeting until their deaths from old age. My tears were heavy and long with loss and mourning for all. Powerful memories. As with my own peers, we shared many joyous interests, activities, laughter, spiritual learning, deep conversations and creativity and love of nature. I greatly miss my close and wise friends, and as dear Edith would say, "BFF, Best Friends Forever". Edith died less than a year ago. Even at age 94, in addition to calling me every morning at sunrise, Edith signed her computer e-mails to me with BFF.
All but Judy (childless), had children, daughters my age. I heard that my friends considered me a daughter. (I would scoff at that; I was their friend, not their daughter.) They were made Honorary Aunties to my first granddaughter and they all loved my daughter, who would loyally visit them when she was in LA.
Maybe my mom is meeting my friends in Heaven along with her own limited friendships (as she was a reclusive artist.) They would have liked each other. Immensely, I loved them all. Friends closer than blood or in-laws. Exactly one week ago my mother-in-law Thea, z”l, died at age 97, 10 Adar, and I never had the shared deep true friendship, love, fun, understanding, joy and respect as with my bright, lively friends, her same age.
With sympathy, I watched them all as loving and dedicated caregivers and as they become widows, losing late in life, their spouses. (Mine had died at only age 59.) Like my in-laws, my friends also were from Europe, and some too were Holocaust escapees, and with a zest for life. My mom's life was also creative, but more serene and isolated, and she died at about half the age of my older friends, and half a century ago.
So many Adar yahrzeits in my family, so it must be that G*d needed joy in Adar and brought back Home, good neshamahs.
Love, JOY
February 22, 2019
Mom died into the wee hours, about 2:30AM of 2.23.1969
Enjoy some of my sites for some of my dear elder friends, z"l, when I have been creating on computer:
Libby's ART
Libby's art created alone and in partnership with her beloved husband Joe Melton, z'l, crossed into all mediums.
Clay sculptures, oil paintings, photographs, magnificent 3D collages out of found ocean objects, small painted rock people, fun mobiles, wood and leather burning, movies, sewing with no patterns, and of course her poetry. She was also hair stylist for us all.
Mermaid
by Libby M. Melton
1960ish
paint on driftwood
I keep near me, this little 2.25" x 7" tall driftwood Mermaid precious painting. See the starfish.
Libby loved the water, and for years collected found objects at the oceans and sea shores: drift wood, seashells, and sea egg cases, broken glass, and made amazing art from them: mobiles and huge collages, even using ironing boards as their bases.
photo by Joy
Caribbean Lady and Panther
"Felinus Satanus Hermaphrodite"
by Libby M. Melton
Painted photo still-life 1960's
Original clay sculpture, oil, and objects d'art.
photo by Joy
Detail
Caribbean Lady and Panther
by Libby M. Melton
Painted photo still-life 1960's
Original clay sculpture and objects d'art.
photo by Joy
Sheherazade painting
told the stories of the Thousand and One Nights
Sheherazade rode safely away on aquatic creature.
by Libby M. Melton 1960's
photo by Joy 2016
Owl and the Pussycat Went to Sea
by Libby Mossman Melton
found ocean glass and beads.
(never finished, Libby died)
in Aviva's home
photo by Joy
Underwater ocean birds with seashells and broken glass I
by Libby Mossman Melton
1960ish with details
Underwater ocean birds with seashells and broken glass II
by Libby Mossman Melton
1960ish with details
photo by Joy
Underwater ocean birds with seashells and broken glass III
by Libby Mossman Melton
1960ish with details
photo by Joy
Underwater ocean birds with seashells and broken glass IV
by Libby Mossman Melton
1960ish with details
photo by Joy
Underwater ocean birds with seashells and broken glass V
by Libby M. Melton
1960ish with details
photo by Joy
Cat
by Libby Mossman Melton
Burn tool on leather
in Joy's home
photo by Joy
Cat
by Libby Mossman Melton
Burn tool on leather
Looks like Pursi grey long-haired cat.
We also had a Siamese cat "Shiva" that Libby saved when it was a sick kitty
and a saved black cat, "Snoopy", from the Bide-A-Wee home.
Mom kept the Siamese in a scarf hanging on her chest and fed it with a baby bottle
because the neighbor's mom cat would not care for it. - Joy
Where is the other burnt leather cat by my mom that I gave to someone? I think to Aunt Perle.
Mobile
by Libby Mossman Melton
found objects, hand painted
in Joy's home
photo by Joy
Mobile
by Libby Mossman Melton
found objects, hand painted
in Joy's home
photo by Joy
Mom would take me to Guggenheim Museum, NY, and lie on the floor in the center main lobby
and she would sketch the large hanging mobile by Alexander Calder.
Mom made many mobiles and gave them away.
When Libby died, I shared them all with relatives. This is the only one I have. - Joy
(At LACMA, I blow-- up high-- trying to reach the Calder mobile in a gallery.
My breath moves mobile, and I instruct my sister to do the same, in the name of our mother.
The guard tells me there is "no blowing allowed".
"It's a mobile" I quickly responded; "It's supposed to move!")
I leave before he throws me out.
Mobile
by Libby Mossman Melton
found objects, hand painted 1960's
In Faye's home. I
photo by Joy
Mobile
by Libby Mossman Melton
found objects, hand painted 1960's
In Faye's home. II
photo by Joy
Mobile
by Libby Mossman Melton. See "LM" on colored disk.
found objects, hand painted 1960's
In Faye's home. III
photo by Faye
Pebble Person
by Libby Mossman Melton
LMM 1965
photo by Joy Krauthammer
Pebble Person
by Libby Mossman Melton
all found pieces. LMM 1965
photo by Joy Krauthammer
Metal Mexican tray:
Libby painted on the desert design, and inspired, wrote poem on back.
in Joy's home
photo by Joy
Tray Back
In the hour of False Dawn
The Beasts of Burden appear
Dun-Colored, one with the earth
Silhouetted dimly against the promise
Of a rising sun.
- Libby M Melton
photos and transcription by Joy
in Joy's home
Joy responds:
Agave, LACMA
© Joy Krauthammer
Agave, shot for this week's "Green" theme
for 52 Frames, on-line photo group.
While I was cropping Agave, I had a visceral jolt,
and also suddenly realized for first time
that my photo looked like my mother's, obm, all green
(which I truly couldn't stand) agave and leaves painting art
from 50-60 years ago.
Was mostly hanging on walls of our NY home, now gone.
I still have a metal tray with Mom's painted green agave
and her poem written on tray back.
Turn over the tray.
Shocking that I had no idea I was so connected from so long ago,
and she was also a poet, photographer, a multi-dimensional artist, and a gardener,
but Mom died young, 49 years.
Maybe Mom is helping G*d to paint the sunrise...
In the aftermath of the Holocaust, Mom would say out loud
"How can there be a G*d?"
blesSings,
JOY
Sept. 26, 2013
AGAVE at LACMA
- Joy Krauthammer
Agave, shot for this week's "Green" theme
for 52 Frames, on-line photo group.
While I was editing/cropping Agave,
I had a visceral jolt,
and also suddenly realized for first time
that my photo looked like my mother's, obm, art,
all green (which I truly couldn't stand)
agave and leaves painting
from 50-60 years ago.
Was mostly hanging on walls of our NY home, now gone,
over the green upholstered, down feather couch
which I wasn't allowed to sit on.
(No plastic covering!)
I still have a metal serving tray
with Mom's painted green agave
and her poem written on tray back.
Turn over the tray.
Shocking that I had no idea
I was so connected to Mom from so long ago.
She, too, before me, was also
a poet, photographer, multi-dimensional artist, and a gardener,
but Mom died young, 49 years old, over 44 years ago.
Mom had worked WW II in the Pentagon
and in the aftermath of the Holocaust,
the only religion statement I heard growing up,
Mom would say out loud,
"How can there be a G*d?"
Maybe Mom is helping G*d to paint the sunrise...
blesSings,
JOY
Sept. 26, 2013
~ ~ ~
MY COUNTERPART
by Joy Melton (and Libby Mossman Melton)
When Libby was hospitalized for 6 months at the end of her life, I would visit at the hospital.
I was very uncomfortable visiting, rarely visited, and the rules of communication were strict.
We visitors were never allowed to speak of "cancer", which meant we could not say our 'goodbye's'.
We could not speak our truth.
The MD heard me that I wanted to speak of cancer, and threatened me that I would not be allowed to visit.
Mom had asked me to look 'cancer' up for her.
I would lie to my mom and tell her how I'd look forward to her creating cuff links for me out of matching tiger eye stones that I'd bought down the road from the hospital, to bring her a gift.
One day for Libby by her tented bed side, I made this duck sketch, "My Counterpart".
Libby wrote on same paper,
"My Joy is NOT A QUACK. MAYBE JUST A LITTLE COO-COO.
Recently I found this little scratch paper with her wedding ketubah.
It is a treasure for me, but from the most horrific time, prior to death.
~
Southern Drawl
In the 1960's I'd rudely say to my mom, born and raised in Decatur, "You say 'thang' for thing'," etc. and she responded, "President Johnson can tawwwlk like that and so can I."
I never knew why my childhood friends made fun of my speech when I returned from holiday in GA. Turns out I must have picked up a southern accent. No wonder why today my daughter is a speech therapist! Now my daughter makes fun of my NY accent.
Mom was best friends with the daughter of the president of Agnes Scott College. I wrote the lady when my mom died in 1969. She also had a drawl. - Joy Krauthammer
~
Libby and Joe Melton
Libby and Joe Melton
Libby Mossman
Joe Melton and Dolphe/Arielle age 3.5
Dec. 1944
Joe made the little light colored leather bag. It was in our NY home filled with marbles.
3 Generations
Libby, Arielle age 8 (formerly Dolphe), Joy age 2, and Grandma Ethel Mossman, age 49
Bronx, NY 1949 (guess)
Before Faye was born in Queens
Libby and Joy, almost 2
4.3.1949
© Joe
Arielle (born/formerly Dolphe)
Libby's eldest child
first born granddaughter of Ethel Mossman
and another generation of artists in the Mossman family.
photo during Ziona's Bat Mitzvah, MD © Aviva Bell 2011
Arielle (born/formerly Dolphe)
Libby's eldest child
first born granddaughter of Ethel Mossman
and another generation of artists in the Mossman family.
photo by Faye Melton 5.2016
in Milwaukee for Arielle's 75th birthday.
~
5th Generation in America
maternal granddaughter of Libby Mossman Melton, z"l,
through Joy/me
AVIVA also an artist, a fine professional photographer.
I am proud of Aviva and her fine work.
Aviva Krauthammer Freedman created this mosaic 2006
in the style her grandmother Libby used,
with ocean theme and seashells.
See mosaics above.
Libby had also painted on trays.
Aviva Leba Bell is named for Libby. Libby died 8 years earlier before Aviva's birth.
Aviva's grandfather Joseph, z"l, also created with tile mosaics, as her mother/Joy/me has done.
Joseph Nathan Melton
Collage for Dad's 75th birthday
Elements lovingly designed by daughters Joy and Faye.
Calligraphed by Barbara Klaristenfeld, 1991
Remembering Dad, z"l, Joseph Nathan Melton. My sister Faye and I designed elements for Dad's 75th birthday collage in 1991, calligraphed by Barbara Klaristenfeld. Inherited many artistic visual and musical gifts from Dad, and strong ethics. (Way too strict.) He played bugle in the US Army DRUM and Bugle Corps, while creating prosthetic devices at Walter Reed Hospital for WWII returning vets. (All his friends were at Juillard and in NY Phil.) Dad, too, was a potter, video maker, and multi-talented artist. Only last week I visited where he grew up in Brooklyn (and where I too had worked in a hospital). Retired from fancy garment district, Dad worked for Sheriff Dep't, and I now volunteer with Police/LAPD, and Fire Dept. (CERT volunteer) when not drumming, photographing, and gardening –as was Dad's passion. He loved my family. Although Dad ran from orthodoxy and Judaism, he asked me for holiday teachings and music, and requested that I "serve as his rabbi at his funeral" after way too many years of cancer. I hope Dad is peacefully fishing somewhere, and with his beloved wife, my mom Libby, z"l, who died too young.
- Joy Krauthammer
June 21, 2015 Father's Day and Summer Solstice, a day filled with the most light.
See NEW POST on Joseph Nathan Melton
Libby Mossman family Geni tree prepared by Joy Krauthammer 1.2017
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