Legacy Gift Keeps a Mother’s Devotion Alive

Michelle Flornoy’s earliest childhood memories are of a home filled with warmth and love. A couple, whose faces she can no longer recall, cared for her in the French countryside while her mother, a Polish Jew, went into hiding to avoid the German occupying forces.

When the war ended, Michelle and her mother, Ina, reunited. While the reunion was a happy occasion, it was also marked with grief by the loss of Ina’s entire family, who perished in the Holocaust.

Michelle and Ina stayed in France for a short period before moving to Houston in 1955 to make a new life. Ina began what became a successful real estate career, and Michelle started school and then later moved to New York and became employed with Air France.

With her wartime experiences and the memory of the family she lost, Ina became involved with Holocaust Museum Houston. Since its 1996 inception, Ina was there for many years, first as a docent and later a front-desk volunteer.

“The museum opens people’s eyes to the horrors that happened—not just to the Jews, but to other nations,” Michelle says. “It’s important that we remember these horrors aren’t just in the past. They’re still going on today.”

To honor her mother, who died in 2008, Michelle has created the Michelle Flornoy Endowment Fund in Memory of Ina Bernstein. “My mother went through so much, now I want to honor her,” Michelle says. “Even though she’s not here to enjoy it, others will be able to learn from it. They’ll keep the memory alive.” This legacy fund will support educational programming and changing exhibitions centered on the Holocaust.

Like Michelle, you can plant the seeds for a legacy that will last for generations to come with an endowed gift. Contact Colton Larsen at 713-527-1612 or clarsen@hmh.org to learn more about this type of giving.