Esther Brain

Esther Mary Henize was born on August 13, 1939 in Circleville, Ohio. Her parents were Walter and Esther Henize. Henize is a German name. Esther’s father was a teacher. Her mother was a homemaker but during the war, she worked for General Electric assembling war equipment. Esther has one sister and one brother. Her sister’s name is Ann and she lives in Florida. Her brother John lives in Massachusetts. Esther grew up in Fayetteville, Ohio, population 500. She lived on ten acres in the country with lots of dogs and cats. She remembers her family had a crank telephone with a party line and her phone number was “4Y”. Her favorite subjects in school were Biology and Math. Esther is a retired registered nurse. She received her nurses training in Columbus, Ohio. Her first nursing job paid $10 a day for 8 hours. In 1969, she married Robert Brain who she had met in San Diego, California who was in the Navy. Eshter and Robert had two children: Susan was born in 1969 and Thomas in 1972. Susan lives in Michigan and is an architect and Thomas lives in Arizona and is a mechanical engineer. Esther likes to knit and crochet. She loves to garden growing flowers, tomatoes, green peppers and other vegetables. Esther volunteers at St. Mary’s Hospital and for the American Red Cross. She also swims several times a week as her condo association has an indoor pool. Esther has lived in Livonia since 1988. Her favorite book was “Gone With the Wind”. Frank Sinatra is her favorite singer and she enjoys music from the 1960’s. When I asked Esther her views on the war in Iraq she responded she was glad we captured Saddam Hussein. She feels it was very appropriate that the United States retaliated after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, but the war in Vietnam was wrong and many lives were needlessly lost.