title: Sophie: A Memoir Of A Matriarch 1897 - 2000
author: Joseph R Simon
description: AUTHOR BOOK BIOGRAPHY Joseph R. Simon is a retired CPA currently residing in Fort Myers, Florida. Prior to his retirement he lived in Albany, New York and was a Partner in the International Accounting Firm PriceWaterhouse Coopers. He also was an adjunct part-time lecturer in the Business Department at the University of Albany. He continued working full time in Albany as Director of Internal Audit at the New York State Department of Taxation to be near his mother while she was a resident in a long term facility there. This is his first book written from notes in a diary left by his mother and from information obtained by interviewing her during the many visits with her.
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   _For my great-grandmother_
  
   _Regina (née Solitar) Falcone_
  
   _1888–1980_
  
   _She was born Jewish_
  
   _in the Austro-Hungarian Empire_
  
   _and quilted a bridge for her family_
  
   _between two worlds_
  
   _To every age its art; to art its freedom_
  
  —SECESSION GALLERY INSCRIPTION, CIRCA 1899
  
   _T_ _he portrait of_ Adele Bloch-Bauer I _measures 54" by 54" unframed, and
  weighs 22 pounds, 8 ounces. She has sixteen eyes, fifteen grams of gold, and
  seven grams of silver. Her dress is decorated with erotic signs and Egyptian
  symbols: the eyes of Horus to defend against evil