arts & life

b ooks

F
From Hardball

To Mushball

Lesley Stahl talks falling in love with her grandchildren

in a new book and Metro Detroit appearance.

Suzanne Chessler | Contributing Writer

details

Lesley Stahl will introduce Becoming
Grandma at a luncheon program
that starts at 11 a.m. Monday, May
16, at Burton Manor Conference
and Banquet Center in Livonia. $40.
(586) 685-5750; bookandauthor.
info. She will also be featured dur-
ing An Evening with Lesley Stahl
at 7 p.m. Monday, May 16, at the
Michigan Theater in Ann Arbor. No
charge. (734) 668-8397;
michtheater.org.

or Lesley Stahl, the very begin-
ning of emotions associated
with grandparenting were born
in Detroit — she was in the Motor
City when she saw the first sonogram
of her oldest granddaughter.
Those emotions became the inspi-
ration for her new book, Becoming
Grandma: The Joys and Science of
the New Grandparenting (Blue Rider
Press), which shows a softer side of
the 25-year veteran correspondent for
60 Minutes.
“My daughter [Taylor Latham] is a
Hollywood producer, and she made
her first movie, LOL, in Detroit,”
explains Stahl in a phone conversation
held as she walked along a New York
City street.
“Taylor is our only child, and she
was pregnant at the time. My husband
[author/screenwriter Aaron Latham]
and I spent our summer vacation
in Detroit so we could be with her.
[Coincidentally], the movie was about
a mother-daughter relationship. Miley
Cyrus was in it with Demi Moore and
Marlo Thomas.”
Stahl, who also has been to
Michigan reporting on the auto indus-
try and speaking before University
of Michigan journalism students at
the encouragement of late colleague
and university alum Mike Wallace, is
returning to speak about the book and
sign copies.
She will be one of four authors
addressing the luncheon program
hosted May 16 by the Metro Detroit
Book and Author Society. That night,
she will speak during An Evening with
Lesley Stahl at the Michigan Theater
in Ann Arbor.
“This turned out to be the very
book I wanted to write,” says Stahl,
74, whose earlier book was Reporting
Live. “I wanted it to be part memoir
and part 60 Minutes investigation.
“I tell about my own experiences
as a grandmother of young children,
and I tell about interviews with
grandmothers and grandfathers hav-
ing grandchildren of various ages. I
also tell about interviews with various
kinds of grandparents — step and
surrogate.
“Then I go off and try to figure out
why 99 percent of us fall madly in love
with our grandchildren, turn into little
mushballs with them and become
pushovers for them.”
Figuring that out involved talking
with experts in anthropology, physiol-
ogy and psychology — all explained
in depth. While she explores relation-
ship problems faced by some grand-
parents, such as being denied access
to children, she does not delve into
issues faced by grandparents of dis-
abled children.

“People want to tell me their own
stories, and that’s fun for me,” says
Stahl, who often hears anecdotes
when signing copies of her book. “I’m
a good target because I’m interested.
“Just the other day, somebody told
me that a little boy was asked what
he thought a grandparent was, and
he said, ‘It’s someone who has time to
pay attention to us.’”
That reflected her experiences, both
as a working parent juggling commit-
ments and a grandparent able to be
more focused.
“As a grandparent, I am in the
moment with my granddaughters,”
she says of Jordan, 5, and Chloe, 2½.
“There is nothing else. I walk into a
room, and I don’t know who else is
in the room. If they want to do some-
thing, my mind is on whatever it is —
coloring or having a tea party.”
Stahl’s book also recalls her Jewish
paternal grandfather, who grew up
in Poland and came to America long
before the Nazis took control. She tells
of traveling to the area of his youth
to see the remnants of the places he
knew, such as the synagogue where he
had his bar mitzvah.
“My grandfather had been the most
wonderful person in my life,” she says.
“He showed me unconditional love,
and I would want him to know how
important he was to me and how his
line went on.”
Stahl, whose book includes Yiddish
phrases such as tsuris and tchotchkes,
is bothered by not introducing her
granddaughters to Judaism. For now,
she leaves religious experiences to her
daughter, who is half Jewish, and her
son-in-law, who is not Jewish.
Before submitting the book to
her publisher, Stahl sought family
approval and made changes — tying
segments together at the suggestion of
her husband and presenting ideas for
a younger generation at the suggestion
of her daughter.
“It became a book for young moth-
ers and fathers as much as for grand-
parents,” says Stahl, who maintained
a conversational style of writing in
keeping with her television presenta-
tions.
Stahl, who has worked as the CBS
News White House correspondent
and hosted Face the Nation from
1983-1991, is regularly viewed on
television by her granddaughters, who
don’t consider her special or different
because of that — with one exception.
“The other day, my 5-year-old
asked if it was true that I know Taylor
Swift,” she says. “Because I had done
a story on Taylor, I am now a hero.
She’s in preschool and told her friends,
‘My Lolly [the family name for grand-
mother] knows Taylor Swift!’”

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May 12 • 2016

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