How do you manage a beloved but stubborn Holocaust survivor who time and again eluded catastrophe by refusing to listen to the advice of others? “You probably don’t,” says attorney Russel Lazega, author of the moving and entertaining book Managing Bubbie. This poignant new book by Lazega shares the hilarious and often exhausting trials of his Miami Beach family as they try to manage their beloved but impossible “Bubbie” (a term of endearment for a Jewish grandmother). The story also vividly recounts the harrowing story of Bubbie’s amazing escape from Nazi clutches and the incredible lengths that a mother will go to for her children.
Managing Bubbie, heralded as a “heartrending, hilarious family memoir,” shares the often exhausting experiences of Russel Lazega’s family as they try to oversee the care of the elderly, unmanageable Lea Lazega – vividly depicted as “a true Miami Beach Jewish Bubbie with silver hair, tortoise-shell glasses two sizes too big and a Yiddish accent.”
As the family tries to help their matriarch comfortably live out her golden years, they discover the difficulties of trying to slow down a strong woman of valor, whose formula for eluding catastrophe had always been refusing to be told what to do.
Beyond chronicling the early life of Lea Lezaga, born in 1911 in run-down Lodz, Poland, Managing Bubbie paints a portrait of a 1980s era American family and remembers the Holocaust – highlighting how the indomitable spirit of love, hope and humor can triumph over deep despair.
Explaining how the seed was planted to write Managing Bubbie, Lazega writes: “It was the last thing she said to me before I left for college. ‘Mine stories – mine life – I vant you should make a book from these tings telling what I did to bring mine children here to this country. Amillion dollars they’ll pay you for this book!’”
For the love of his one-in-a-million Bubbie, Lazega fulfilled his promise to write about the inspiring life of Lea Lazega that even surpasses her own proclamation:“I know it sounds crazy, but vat can I tell you? Oy! My life is full of crazy stories!”
To laugh, cry and commiserate with the trials and tribulations of Managing Bubbie, order your copy today at Amazon.com
Russel Lazega, an attorney with Florida Advocates, is also the author of two of Florida’s most widely distributed legal textbooks on Florida Insurance Law. For more information, phone: 754-263-4252 or visit lazegalaw.com
