Brandeis Magazine

Sandra “Sandie” Cutler Bernstein has completed her second novel with Rhoda Kaplan Pierce. “The Spirit of Kehillat Shalom” unfolds in a Coolidge Corner synagogue, in Brookline, Massachusetts, and also features such sites as the New England Conservatory of Music and the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. Jeff Golland writes, “My children and grandchildren are getting older and doing well. My wife has ailments but manages them well. My work with patients, students and colleagues keeps me young. I look forward to our Reunion.” The Journal of the American Medical Association published Carol Snyder Halberstadt’s “Pulmonaria: A Poem Cycle” in the poetry and medicine column. The 12 poems chronicle her battle with lung cancer. For Robert Hammer, the past few years have been “the best of times and the worst of times.” The worst: His wife of 46 years, Barbara, died unexpectedly in October 2014. The best: Their younger son, Michael, and his family settled in Israel in July 2012, joining his brother, Jonathan (Yoni), who had come with his wife and year-old daughter in 1999. Robert’s home is a 10-minute walk from Yoni and his family, and a 45-minute drive from Mike and his family. Walter Klores and his wife, Emily White ’69, “tramped” through New Zealand, conquering the wilds of the 140-year-old Fiordlands via the Milford Track. Walt and Emily were the oldest members of their group of 43 travelers and four guides but had no trouble dealing with storms, rough footing, washed-out trails and rock avalanches as they hiked, paddled, rappelled and zip-lined through the harsh terrain. Baila Milner Miller writes, “Irv and I are still enjoying retirement, busy with artistic activities, classes, volunteer work and a bit of travel. In December 2014, we moved from our Chicago townhouse of 14 years to a high-rise condo in Evanston, Illinois, the community where we previously lived for 23 years and raised our kids. Our married children and grandkids live in Chicago and Minneapolis, so we are able to stay in close touch. Our biggest excitement was seeing our oldest grandchild, Sarah, go off to George Washington University last fall. It brought back memories of my early days at Brandeis and a realization of how much things change yet still remain the same.” In 2011, Dorothy Shubow Nelson retired from the University of Massachusetts Boston after nearly 25 years of teaching writing and literature. She is on the board of the Gloucester Writers Center, and teaches creative writing to veterans and their families. She has been writing poetry since 1988.