Midway between the ancient 19th century shtetl and the 20th century world to which they were headed, they stopped in London where Lily was born and named. In naming her Lily, my great-grandparents established a symbolic bridge to the new world. She was a bet on the future.

Lily’s middle name, Isabella, was chosen in honor of my other grandmother Bella who was my personal bridge to the 19th century. She was born in 1899 in Tarnopol, Galicia and was blessed with a long and healthy life. I can remember hearing her Yiddish expressions as a teenager. In particular I can recall her shock at my wearing sweatpants in public, which she called gotkes, the Yiddish word for long underwear.

Lily’s Hebrew name Liora, can be translated as A Light Unto Me. In the six months that she has been a part of my life there is no doubt that Lily has illuminated and brightened some otherwise difficult days. Her presence in my life has also put into bright perspective the relative importance of life’s little joys, and irrelevance of so much of the nagging worries that plague our daily lives.

I chose Liora also because it contained with in it the word “Or.” Lily is the great-great-great -grandaughter of Rochla Orlean who was the grandmother of my grandfather. The family name Orlean has been lost because the few male Orleans that survived had gone to Israel in 1920s and 1930s and there they changed their names from Orlean to “Or” the Hebrew word meaning light.

Lastly, I have given Lily the name Penina, which translates from Hebrew as the word for Pearl. In this way I honor the memory of my own mother, Lily’s grandmother who left us just as Lily was being conceived but who remains with us in spirit. My mother, as it happened, was named for her own father’s mother as well.

Penina, the Kabbalah tells us has its roots in the word Pnim or inside, and it is thought that it is became the word for Pearl because it referred to the beauty that is inside. This emphasis on the beauty of a person measured not by his/her appearance, but by values and deeds, typifies how my mother lived her life. In giving Lily this name I hope to bequeath to her the lessons my mother taught to me.