{"id":6433,"date":"2020-06-11T12:33:00","date_gmt":"2020-06-11T09:33:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dev.shira-aharony.co.il\/%d7%a1%d7%91%d7%aa%d7%90-%d7%a8%d7%95%d7%aa%d7%99\/"},"modified":"2025-10-12T07:24:42","modified_gmt":"2025-10-12T04:24:42","slug":"grandma-rutis-marionette","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/shira-aharony.com\/en\/grandma-rutis-marionette\/","title":{"rendered":"Grandma Ruti\u2019s Marionette"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

I have Grandma Ruti, a true Tel Aviv-born ninja at heart (and currently a resident of Modi’in) who\u2019s eighty-something and a bit more. Every time we meet, I can\u2019t believe her age\u2014eighty-something\u2014and that I\u2019m in my thirties, or more accurately, almost forty.<\/p>\n\n

Growing old isn\u2019t a picnic; it\u2019s hard for everyone. It brings encounters and struggles with health and with yourself, a lot of soul-searching, and frustration over forced separations from loved ones, from the things you loved to do but are now harder to do. Everything condenses and shrinks. It\u2019s tough.<\/p>\n\n

For ninjas like Grandma Ruti, it\u2019s extra hard because she\u2019s such an active woman\u2014sharp, multi-talented, sociable, loves to go out and experience life. You can take Grandma out of Tel Aviv, but you can\u2019t take Tel Aviv out of Grandma.<\/p>\n\n

During the height of the coronavirus pandemic, there were a few moments I think were especially tough for her. I believe Passover and the days leading up to it were the hardest. As part of her \u201cwar\u201d on the virus, she opened a central kitchen and insisted on cooking the traditional holiday food (gefilte fish, chopped liver, charoset).<\/p>\n\n

There was a distribution operation\u2014each family sent a representative to the building entrance to pick up their share, and the Pyrex containers spread everywhere. On the holiday evening, I sat and ate her food crying, regretting so much that we weren\u2019t together.<\/p>\n\n

Today, after a long time staying mostly around home, we drove to Tel Aviv together. It felt like being abroad.<\/p>\n\n

We visited the Museum of Art (MuZA), the Biennale of Art and Design. How wonderful to see an open museum full of visitors. How strange that everyone wore masks\u2014it looked like an art installation in itself, people with covered faces wandering around the art.<\/p>\n\n

For me, the big highlight of the Biennale was the prominent space dedicated to embroidery works. Go see it\u2014all of it. Truly worth it.<\/p>\n\n

My grandma stood for several long minutes in front of works by Lucy Elkowitz called \u201cMarionettes\u201d (exhibited at the \u201cAdam V\u2019amlo\u201d center). She stood there with sparkling eyes. \n \n<\/p>\n\n