Hedy Page came a long way from her childhood in Nazi occupied Vienna, to her escape through Panama and eventually to NYC…

…and Long Beach, NY.

In one of my early conversations with Hedy, she said that she had traveled from Vienna to Panama in 1944 and then from Panama to the United States in 1948.

When Hedy first came to America, she hated the segregation. All white schools, all white neighborhoods.

But several years ago, she was asked to speak about her life to an Oceanside school. She said she was so pleased to see “every color, every mixture.” She said, “All I remember is the bright shining faces of every color.” She said, “It gave me such hope that the country is going in the right direction.”

But the day I first met Hedy Page on May 5th, 2023, I was so engrossed in what she had to say. She told me about her life as an eight-year-old in Vienna under the Nazi’s. I had never spoken with anyone who had personally suffered under Hitler.

Hedy told me of her dad being dragged away by Nazi soldiers and the miracle of his safe return. She touched me with her memories. She still touches me with them.

Most of us don’t know what it is like to experience such personal suffering under authoritarian rule. But Hedy did and survived. And in that survival, she flourished, working to bring kindness and beauty into our troubled world. Her late husband, Eric, was a significant motivator behind much of her efforts.

Eric remains a major influence on Hedy. She quotes him regularly about how we shouldn’t dwell on the horrors of the concentration camps he suffered in, or slavery in America. He said we need to show the future generations the good in humankind.

I recorded Hedy recently, as she reiterated Eric’s thoughts:

“Before Eric passed away, he said, ‘Let’s do a painting, where we show who we really are. When history speaks about our time, it’s going to speak about a world of war, slavery, and the holocaust. 
But that’s not who we are.’ He said, ‘Let’s do a painting showing real people who do things of kindness. 
Because it’s the act of kindness that allows the world to go on.'”

Towards that end, Hedy has produced 93 full-size paintings featuring over 10,000 people she has met. Her paintings have graced the walls of many museums and other venues:

From Hedy’s site:

Now, Hedy Page’s final painting hangs over the entrance at our City Hall, above the chamber where the Long Beach City Council meets.

So fitting that her final painting is of our hometown, Long Beach, NY, where Hedy, now 96, has lived for so many years.

Hedy captured the essence of good people in her paintings and drawings.

I captured Hedy in my writings and photos.

I captured her in the street from my terrace…

…and the boardwalk where I first met her:

And with her son Ken and his husband, Gregg:

And when she was featured on ABC news…

…when she reunited with Kent Almqvist, who took this famous street photo decades ago.

Kent visited from Sweden with his friend Lars Petersson to join Hedy and her friends.

Hedy captured so many thousands of people with her deft paint strokes:

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All of these people had a positive influence on Hedy, as in all of her paintings:

Follow Your Art Gallery and frame shop was a beloved fixture in Long Beach for many years.

Hedy always loved to draw. It was part of her joy in life.

Long Beach, NY’s Artists in Partnership will showcase Hedy’s drawings through the years at the Long Beach Historical Society. Come see a selection of Hedy’s drawings, July 31st, 2025, at the Historical Society, 226 West Penn St., Long Beach, NY. 6:30 p.m. The drawings will continue to be displayed through August.

Anyone encountering Hedy could see that love all over her face. My sweetheart, Cheryl, loved to see Hedy’s joy writ large.

A few glimpses of Hedy and her drawings.

Hedy drew all life around her, including the homeless…

…and the horrific:

The World Trade Center towers were in the background of the Green Market at 17th St. and Broadway when Hedy worked on this painting. The American flag flew high above the throngs in the market.

Then Hedy heard and saw a plane flying low above her. It was on an insane mission.

Soon, the twin buildings turned into towers of fire and smoke. Hedy fled the disaster for home.

Later, she went to her preliminary drawing to erase the towers, pencil in smoke, and lower the flag.

Hedy visited the imprisoned as humankind has been urged to do through the eons.

But she went even further by teaching prisoners to draw and paint.

Hedy has found herself amidst so much terror on Earth.

First, as an eight-year-old child in a Vienna closet, hearing Nazi soldiers at the apartment door. Then the horrific crashing of planes into the towers just blocks from where she found joy.

But Hedy remained motivated to bring joy to the world through her art. She gained that motivation to give from her deceased brother, Richie.

Hedy spoke about Richie recently: “He was my older brother, and I always wished I would be like Richie. He smiled at everybody. If he had two toys, he gave both of them away. 
He didn’t say, I’ll keep one. I wanted to be like him, a giver, and you can’t be a giver halfway.”

One day, Hedy said, “I was thinking my age with rage. Why do you give me so much, only to take it away? You gave me legs to move, eyes to see all these things. Why do you bother giving them to me if you’re only taking them away afterwards?” 

But she said she learned meditation from her son, Ken. And when she meditated, she thought of the sunflowers when they are so young and follow the sun. But they later droop and the leaves envelop the seeds, and the birds eat the seeds,”

She said, “Yes, I am a part of that.”

Hedy spreads her seeds of wisdom for us. She sees the goodness in people on planet Earth that she needs to paint into her paintings.

Hedy also paints with words on her “Mondays With Hedy” YouTube show. She paints words of wisdom about the goodness in humankind.

One look at Hedy reveals that the horrors she suffered are long on the wane, and the joy of life—at 96—is still rising.

Be well,

Leebythesea