Monks and memories

A month after the September 11 terrorist attacks, I drove from our house in Massachusetts up to New Hampshire to spend my birthday with a friend in Peterborough.  Lisa had been my sons' kindergarten teacher as well as my friend and running partner,  but she had recently moved to New Hampshire to be with her fiance. "Come visit," she urged.  She wanted me to go with her to see a one-woman show based on the writings Etty Hillesum, a brilliant young Jewish writer who had died in a concentration ...