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RUTH BONNEVILLE / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Faith 3 Portraits of Winnipegger, Susan Garfield, in her home with her diary from 1949 once she came to Canada.  Her wartime diary will be on display at upcoming launch at the Berney Theatre, Asper Jewish Community Campus. “The reason I am writing this diary is that, many years from now when my smooth face will be a map of wrinkles, I may show it to my children and grandchildren. I want to give account of the war-filled years, the strife, the persecution, and many more heart-rending things.” That’s how Winnipegger Susan Garfield’s wartime diary begins. Garfield, 86, was almost 11 years-old when she started writing about her experiences as young Jewish girl in Budapest in June 1944. On December 8, 2 p.m., Garfield’s diary, titled Too Many Goodbyes, will be launched at the Berney Theatre, Asper Jewish Community Campus, 123 Doncaster. The event will feature a conversation about loss, family and finding a new home between Garfield and Adara Goldberg, director of Kean University Holocaust Resource Centre. For Garfield, a mother and grandmother, the publication of the diary is a way to “counteract those who say it didn’t happen. I am here to say it did. I saw it.” She also wants to “speak up for those who died, and for those who are still suffering because of their experiences during the war.” This includes a childhood friend from when she was growing up in Budapest—"one of the most beautiful, smartest and nicest persons”—who survived the war but lives with severe depression because of her experiences. “I think about her a lot,” Garfield said. “Whatever happened back then affects your whole life.” By John Longhurst Dec 2nd, 2019