Another Painting on My Father's Death

"Disappeared"

Oil Painting by Lily S. May

Copyright 2007

I haven't updated this memorial to my father in over a year. Finally I have returned to post the third painting that I did in 2007 after his death. This one shows me holding a photo of my father as a young man.

The process of painting these self portraits and those of my father was a great help in coming to terms with his life and death.

Paintings on My Father's Death

"On the Recent Death of My Father"

Oil Painting by Lily S. May

Copyright 2007

18" x 24"

"My Father Has Died"

Oil Painting by Lily S. May

Copyright 2007

18" x 24"

I've returned, after 40 years, to oil painting. These are the 2 paintings I've done so far relating to the death of my father, Benjamin Barsel.

You can also see them on my site--http://www.artsofmay.com/

World War II Service

This is a photo of my father, Benjamin--Benny--Barsel during World War II. He served in the 329th medical battalion with the Timberwolves infantry division--the 104th division.

Four or five years before my father's death, I learned that he had been part of the liberation of a concentration camp in Nordhausen, Germany called Mittelbau Dora. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mittelbau-Dora. He did not like to speak of his experiences there, but did say that it saddened him greatly to witness the terrible sights in Mittelbau Dora.

I have found a number of websites about Mittelbau Dora. Two more of them are:

• http://members.aol.com/Galione3/timberwolf415b001.htm


• http://www.104infdiv.org/CONCAMP.HTM
  

Benny Barsel

When I returned home from my father's funeral, I googled his name to see if any information came up that I had been unaware of. I had little success in entering his adult names--Ben and Benjamin Barsel. But then I did a search using the name he went by as a boy and young man--Benny Barsel. And up came a tremendous surprise--a photo of him from his high school year book and the earliest one of him I'd seen.

I learned he'd gone to the Woodrow Wilson High School in Portsmouth, Virginia and that he graduated from there in 1931. Thankfully, a more recent graduate from that same school has put excellent archival material on the web.

Here's the link to the web site: http://www.wwhsalumni.com/1931_roster_pg1.html.

Because the image of my father on the school site was somewhat blurred, I decided to work with it in Photoshop to enhance it for myself. The most successful photo I came up with is the one at the beginning of this posting.

Remembering My Father

This is a photograph of my father, Benjamin Barsel, in his 60s when he lived and worked in St. John, US Virgin Islands.

My father died on March 21, 2007. He was 91 years old. Ben was born in the spring of 1915. He did not know the exact date and later created May 1 as his observed birthday. He was born in what is now called Israel, but what was then Palestine.

He was a private man who, in general, spoke little about his life in words, but who had a strong felt presence.

Ben is survived by:

• His spouse for over 61 years, Bernice Barsel


• His son and daughter-in-law, Paraman and Lakshmi Barsel


• His daughter and son-in-law, myself--Lily S. May--and Michael C. Greene
• His sister, Thelma Edelstein, and her family--including his nieces Sylvia Nissenboim and Ruth Edelstein.

Ben was living in Charlottesville, Virginia, U.S.A. at the time of his death. When we children were growing up, we lived in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in the U.S. It was in 1969 that my parents moved to St. John in the U.S. Virgin Islands where they lived and worked for, I believe, 16 years.

Ben Barsel was a certified public accountant who worked at his profession until he was 87. He had a strong interest in history and society, enjoyed reading and chess and loved great food.

During the last few years of his life I learned about some of his experiences as a medic in World War II and recently have learned something about his early life that I'll write about in this blog.