Binder2

Preface / Prologue
“A preface or prologue is the section included in the front matter of a book. This is the author’s
chance to speak directly to the readers about why they wrote the book, what it's about, and why
it's important to them.” Google Search.
This book is co-written by Sheila Deitch and Corinne Deitch and Gerry Deitch has done the
illustrations. The following email quoted from Sheila to the family is how this project started:
“Hi everyone I have to tell you all about a project that Dorit keeps telling me must be done, that
is, writing up all the stories we tell around the table about antics (clowning) that Deitch children
and the adults seem to be good at and there are already two generations of them. So, having heard
Dorit’s request umpteen times, I decided to put pen to paper and begin. Please send your title
suggestions and of course your cooperation will be needed as I write the stories for other versions
as there is more than one version of a story. As Guy pointed out recently when I was telling the
story about how we lost him in the natural science museum, there was of course a discrepancy
between Gerry’s version and Guys version.
Regards, Sheila
We don’t have the exact time stamp on this but I would say it was sent about four or five years
ago perhaps in 2014. Since then I have completed a Master degree in Art Therapy. During my
studies, we were constantly reminded to ask questions and wonder about the meaning behind why
we do stuff the way we do it, such as choosing creating and making. This got me wondering what
it was that stimulated us to write this book and why was it so important for us to do so other than
Dorit’s persistence. I came to the conclusion that we are not only preserving our family history
and legacy, but we have an obligation to give an in depth meaningful rationale to the book. I
believe the urge stems from our individual childhood backgrounds, our upbringings and our
personal life events as Sheila describes, how some of these have influenced our temperaments and
personalities. Let’s not forget though that hereditary and genes have a part to play as I mention
below. We have all heard the saying ‘a picture is worth a thousand words’ or 'there's more to this
than meets the eye'. Throughout my study time I had these expressions drilled into my thought
processes. So without going into too much Freudian Psychology but as a result of lot of pondering
on my part, if you are intrigued to know more about us and why we are the way we are, continue
to read the following “spiel”.
I understand that some of the Deitch mob doesn’t like reading much, especially long drawn out
texts such as the one below. I am happy to say it is a small number of family members who do
have this Deitch ‘gone wrong’ gene running in their blood, you know who you are, so you can
skip this part if you like and come back to it later. However, it is an important part of our story of
who we are and why we are the way we are.
Sheila’s World
Sheila was a very popular, out going and friendly young girl who grew up in Leeds with her
parents Sam and Betty Winston (formally Wineberg, more about the name Winston in later
stories). Betty and Sam both were born in England to Russian migrants. This made Sheila the
second generation to be born in England. Although she has had no siblings alive during her
lifetime, she is Betty and Sam’s second child and was born on March 15th 1938, ten years after
the traumatic death from diphtheria of Sam and Betty’s first child, a baby girl, called Audrey. She
was born in January 1930 and died in September 1930. It is awful for any parent to lose their
child, possibly as a result, this caused Betty to suffer from depression. She suffered with mental
health issues throughout her life. Perhaps it was a genetic disorder or as a result of the trauma or a
5