Dr. Ruth Westheimer, the sex therapist who died July 12 at age 96, was a dinner guest at my residence when I was the American ambassador in Switzerland.
She arrived at my door with a tottering stack of books: “Sex for Dummies” in five languages.
“I bet no one has brought these books to the American ambassador before,” she laughed as she handed them to me. The books eventually found a home on the lower shelf of my book case in Vermont, where they sat quietly until my grandchildren, ages 10 and 12 spied them. (“Grammy?”)
Ruth was in Switzerland to visit her good friend who had been in the same Kindertransport that brought children from Germany to Switzerland at the beginning of World War II. That trip saved her life. When she hugged her mother goodbye, she would never see her again. Her entire family was killed.
Not many people know that Ruth was a Holocaust survivor. One of her first books was not about sex but about her early life.
The night of the dinner party at my residence was filled with laughter at every course. Not a hint of Ruth’s difficult past. It was the funniest night ever.
We met again in Stowe, where we skied together. She borrowed my woolen socks. And, yes, she skied well.
As I look back on her life, I ask myself how could a young girl come to the United States, a refugee from the Holocaust, and have a name that makes everyone giggle?
Read the story on VTDigger here: Madeleine Kunin: Remembering Dr. Ruth.