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Her
Smile
one
Through

Susan Fine, circa 1986

DAVID SACHS
StaffWriter

D

espite living all her life with
a severely debilitating ill-
ness, Susan Fine remained
the eternal optimist.
"She believed in miracles and
always had a smile," said her mother,
Pauline Fine. "She fought — she did-
n't want to let go. Each day was pre-
cious to her, a gift from God to carry
on.''
Susan Gail Fine, 36, of Oak Park
died May 16 of complications from
Familial Dysautonomia (FD), a devas-
tating genetic condition that afflicts
several hundred Ashkenazi Jews world-
.
wide.
This dysfunction of the autonomic
nervous system left Miss Fine with a
crippling curvature of the spine, an
inability to eat or swallow, wide swings
in temperature and blood pressure and
extreme hypersensitivity to odors,
among other maladies. She required
hundreds of hospital stays over the
years as well as round-the-clock inten-
sive nursing care at home, provided by
her mother. Older brother Joel died of
FD in 1982 at age 24.
Despite her difficult illness, Susan
Fine strove to make the best out of life
and always maintained a sense of dig-
nity and beauty. "She didn't waste a
minute," said her mother.
Confined at home in a wheelchair
in her last seven years, she crafted
homemade jewelry and used proceeds
from their sale to buy herself more
precious jewelry from the QVC cable
shopping network. She crocheted baby
blankets for her nephew and nieces.
"Susan was a gifted writer, a very
articulate person," said Rabbi E.B.

"Bunny" Freedman, director of the
Jewish Hospice and Chaplaincy
Network. He and his wife, Shaindy,
befriended Miss Fine seven years ago.
Rabbi Freedman read her poetry at the
funeral held May 16 at Clover Hill
Park Cemetery.
Miss Fine, who wrote a manuscript
for a children's book at age 13, was a
graduate of Berkley High School,
where she won a writing award. She
graduated from Oakland Community
College as an office assistant and
worked as a typist and computer oper-
ator in libraries in Oak Park and
Farmington.
A graduate of the Congregation
Shaarey Zedek Hebrew school, "her
religious observance, faith in God and
continuous quest for knowledge was
what sustained her," said her mother.
After seeing a movie about Helen
Keller, Miss Fine developed empathy
for the deaf and took courses in sign
language. She wrote a short story
about a couple who adopted a deaf
baby and once used her signing skills
to communicate with a deaf hospital
roommate.
She was a fan of daytime dramas
and corresponded for more than eight
years with actress Nancy Lee Grahn,
who plays attorney Alexis Davis on
ABC-TV's General Hospital.
Researchers are currently honing in
on a genetic marker testing for carriers
of the disease. Nevertheless, parental
caregivers of FD children remain for-
ever affected.
As a sole caregiver, Pauline Fine
would be with her daughter 24 hours
a day, even during the frequent hospi-
tal stays. Rabbi Freedman said, "I
believe Susan survived all those years
because of the love and strength her

Life And Death

Lift first begins
with the cry of a newborn baby
He smiles, as though he is glad to be
in a world
All of life and beauty.

As he grows, he looks at Mother
Nature's work of art;
Life!
The earth's trees, grass, flowers!
He feels good to be part of the won-
deifitl world.

Now it is time for his death.
He goes to Heaven
Where he sees angels on white clouds
and God is just as magnificent and

powerful
as he imagined.

Death is not the end of life.
It is the beginning of a new one.

(This poem was written by Susan
Fine at age 19 upon the death of
her brother, Joel, from Familial
Dysautonomia.)

mother put into her."
Michigan Court of Appeals Judge
Hilda Gage had a "beautiful little boy"
with FD who died at age 6. The judge
long ago enlisted Mrs. Fine in the
campaign to raise money for FD
research.
"The parents learned a lot from
these kids," Judge Gage said. "We
learn what's important and how to
smile in the face of whatever adversity
they're going through."
Miss Fine is survived by her moth-
er, Pauline Fine of Oak Park; sisters
and brothers-in-law Sharon and
Joseph Prawer of Southfield, Laura
and Charles Goldston of West
Bloomfield; nephew and nieces
Menachem Dovid White, Dena
White, Alana 'White, Naomi White,
Marissa Goldston and Danielle
Goldston.
Miss Fine was the loving daughter
of the late Morris Fine, the beloved sis-
ter of the late Joel Fine and dear sister-
in-law of the late Sheldon White.
Contributions may be made to the
Dysautonomia Foundation, do Joyce
Maza, (248) 626-6844 or to a charity
of one's choice. Arrangements by
Hebrew Memorial Chapel. ❑

Dedicated
To Educating

DAVID SACHS
StaffWriter

Iff

any Detroit Jews became
acquainted with the
steady administrative style
of Dr. Norman Drachler
during their childhood. Dr. Drachler of
Phoenix, who died May 20 on his 88th
birthday, devoted his life to both public
school and Jewish education.
Dr. Drachler's
long career with
the Detroit
Public Schools
included time as
assistant princi-
pal at heavily
Jewish Roosevelt
Elementary in
the mid-1940s
and
five years as
Dr. Norman
superintendent of
Drachler
schools during
the turbulent era, 1966-71. He was
education director at Temple Beth El
for 15 years and a longtime director of
Camp Farband in Chelsea.
Dr. Drachler, a native of Ukraine,
came to Detroit as a youth when his
father accepted a job teaching at Sholem
Aleichem Institute. Sol Drachler
describes his brother as a brilliant stu-
dent who taught at his father's school at
age 17. He continued to teach in Jewish
schools as a college student.
A graduate of Wayne University,
Dr. Drachler joined the Detroit Public
Schools in 1937 as a teacher. He
became assistant principal at Roosevelt
Elementary in 1946, receiving a Ph.D.
from the University of Michigan in
1951. He served as principal of King
Elementary and later Mettetal School
and taught school administration at
Wayne University.
Dr. Drachler was named Detroit's
assistant superintendent in 1960, and
acting superintendent in 1966, receiving
a full appointment the next year.
During his tenure, he provided the
mechanism for minority teachers to
advance to the school administrative
office. He was a believer in decentral-
ization and advocated the redrawing
of Detroit high school boundaries to
promote integration. He also served
on the New Detroit Committee dur-
ing its first five years.
"Dr. Drachler brought order during
very chaotic times," said Seymour

l'W

5/26
2000

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