Centenarian songstress sends musical gift to great-granddaughter

By JUDY SIEGEL-ITZKOVICH
A Yad Sarah volunteer has helped a 106-year-old woman send a special wedding gift to her great-granddaughter on the young woman's wedding day in Uruguay. Rahel Susahnin, who made aliya from South America six years ago and lives in a retirement home in Ra'anana, was helped by Dvora Baruch of Yad Sarah to record Spanish and Arabic songs she remembered from her childhood on a CD. Every week for the last two years, Baruch has visited the centenarian at her room in the old age home as part of Yad Sarah's project for the homebound. They conversed about the "old country" in Spanish and discussed their childhood memories. Baruch soon learned that Susahnin loved to sing the songs she learned as a child. For her 106th birthday, Baruch decided to surprise Susahnin by taking her to the Impact Studio in Ra'anana to record her and send the CD to Uruguay as a wedding present. Eyal, the studio director, said that Susahnin's recording "was one of the most exciting things that ever happened to me. It was like documenting something that doesn't exist anymore. It was amazing that at her age, Rahel has such tremendous energy and is able to sing and leave a footprint for generations."