You may not have heard the name Ilene Beckerman, but you probably have heard of Love, Loss and What I Wore.
It was published in 1995, when first-time author Ilene Beckerman was sixty years old. Publishers Weekly described her book as a “captivating little pictorial autobiography for adults…a wry commentary on the pressures women constantly face to look good.”
Beckerman’s breakthrough: Our memories are tied to our favorite clothes. Her message resonated with us and how we tie together our personal history of relationships, disappointments and greatest loves with the wrap dress, the red spike heels and the Pucci knock-off adorning our closets. Love, Loss and What I Wore is always my go-to present for friends’ milestone events.
The first time I met Ilene was shortly after her book was published. In those days, relatively unknown authors customarily crossed the country on book tours. I was a writer, eager to interview her. We met at the Netherland Hilton Hotel in downtown Cincinnati Ohio – known for its elegance and art deco motif.
Introducing myself, I slid into the booth in the hotel’s opulent dining room. I was eager to size her up, analyze her life experiences, mine for kernels of wisdom. But the look on her face startled me.Two unexpected words leapt to my mind: Transfixed. Astounded.
I was momentarily taken aback. “Why do you look so disconcerted?” I probed.
“Well, I’m a New Yorker, honey,” she boasted,“and I thought Ohio meant farmland and overalls. Not a French Art Deco masterpiece of a hotel and a fashion plate of a reporter, toting a Louie Vuitton bag.”
That was the first astonishing thing that came out of my new friend’s mouth, but not the last.
Beckerman, a graphic artist and former advertising executive, confided that she didn’t even get started writing until the age of sixty.
At age twelve, she lost her mom
She married young to a man seventeen years her senior
She divorced
She remarried
She had six kids, one who died in infancy
She divorced again
It’s no wonder Love, Loss and What I Wore was resplendent with wisdom. Her book went on to become even more widely known when in 2008 the Ephron sisters, Nora and Delia, used it as the basis of a play with the same name. The play would run off-Broadway for a record making amount of time, be produced on six continents and in more than eight countries.
But Beckerman, nicknamed “Gingy,” didn’t stop there.
In 2011, she published The Smartest Woman I Know, a narrative of growing up as a teenager under the guidance of her grandmother, Ettie Goldberg – who had no more than a third grade education and was a proprietor of a small Upper East Side candy, stationary and paper store. The Smartest Woman I Know is also a favorite gift-giving book.
Ilene “Gingy” Beckerman is a force, a warrior and a role model. She blossomed late. Triumphed over life’s roadblocks and continues to inspire everyone she touches.
Below is the link to her latest blog. I’m a fan. I hope you become one too.
http://lovelossandreallife.com
PS: She is happily remarried to a guy named Stanley and lives in New Jersey.
Keep Preserving your Bloom,
Iris Ruth Pastor