Elena. A Hand Made Life

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A heartfelt graphic memoir of love, family, and fearless women. Lives were bent in the furnaces of the twentieth century, but Granny was unbroken. With a stethoscope, a jar of herring, and a hearing aid occasionally switched on, she forged an extraordinary life. Elena Zadik ran through the twentieth century without looking back. A refugee twice before she was 17, she trained in medicine during World War 2, becoming a brilliant doctor despite being a terrible driver. Following her childhood in Ukraine during the Russian civil war in a tiny Jewish family, she experienced a briefly peaceful childhood in Germany before arriving in the UK as a lone teenage refugee in 1937. The story shows Elena breaking glass ceilings to become a doctor, practicing in working-class Sheffield and witnessing terrible deprivation. She rejoices at the founding of the NHS, to which she dedicates 40 years of service. Her life intertwines with her family's trauma, and her granddaughter reflects on their unconventional relationship, highlighting Elena's resilience, humor, and resourcefulness.