Monica Wesolowska interviewed by Frances Dinkelspiel for Berkeleyside
Far from being a depressing book, Holding Silvan is one of those books you read and cry over and put down feeling that the human spirit is really indomitable.—Frances Dinkelspiel.
Frances DinkelspielYou and your husband went on to have two more sons after Silvan’s death. How is Silvan still a part of your family’s life?
Monica Wesolowska Yes, I have two more children. (Can you see me smiling?) David and I have never hidden Silvan from our children. After his death, we installed a bench in our backyard, a child-sized version of the kind you find in public parks, and we put a little bronze plaque on it memorializing him. We called it Silvan’s bench and when our children were old enough to crawl up to it and sit on it, they called it Silvan’s bench too. When I am missing him, I go and sit on it. I’m glad for my children to see that I can take time still to love Silvan and that this doesn’t diminish my love for them. That’s the wild thing about love. You can love one person so fully, and this doesn’t stop you from loving others fully too.
To read the entire interview, go to Berkeleyside.