RESOLUTION
WHEREAS, The members of the Chicago City Council are pleased to honor Hanna Bratman of Chicago for the many years of dedicated service she has given to her community, to senior citizens, to the blind; and has been a remarkable, humorous, spirited leader; truly an inspiration for women and men alike, not only with her sense of survival and resilience, but need to adapt to the times and ever-changing technology; and
WHEREAS, Hanna Bratman was born in Germany in 1920 and, at 19 years old, escaped Germany prior to World War II. In 1942 she married Eugene Bratman; mother of Rudy Lubov (nee Bratman) and Stanley Bratman. A proud grandmother and great-grandmother; and
WHEREAS, Hanna Bratman has dedicated much of her life to unselfishly serving others, always willing to listen, evaluate problems and assist in finding solutions and resolution. Her career began at Social Research, Inc., where she grew with the rapidly expanding company, becoming a supervisor early on, at a time when most women were not active in the work-force. After a successful career in market research, she joined her husband as a partner in his import decor business. At this time she became a resident of Lakeview, where she would remain for more than forty years; and
WHEREAS, She was a leader in forming an exercise group, which quickly became a community of accomplished and diverse individuals, celebrating each other and their ideas, their achievements and milestones; and
WHEREAS, Upon retirement, nearly fifty years after moving to America, she began taking classes at her local community college, and was encouraged to write essays about her life as a Jewish girl in Germany with World War II rapidly approaching, which would eventually become her memoirs; and
WHEREAS, At age 72, she was diagnosed with macular degeneration, becoming blind virtually overnight. Instead of allowing this to become a hindrance, she utilized services provided by the Lighthouse for the Blind in Chicago; there she learned how to use newer adaptive services to assist in her writing, such as larger fonts and specialized keyboards; and
WHEREAS, After overcoming her own challenges, she began volunteering at Blind Services Association, where she lead support groups, one in particular called "Blind Leading the Blind"; and
WHEREAS, At the age of 91, she became a published author of What Is In My Head. The introduction written by award-winning author, teacher, and journalist Beth Finke; and
WHEREAS, Hanna Bratman has been featured numerous times on television, radio, and many speaking engagements. One particularly shining moment was her introduction of President Bill Clinton in 1999 at the Chicago Cultural Center; now therefore
BE IT RESOLVED, That we, the Mayor and members of the City Council of the City of Chicago, assembled this 19 day of April, 2017 do hereby honor Hanna Bratman; and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that a suitable copy of this resolution be prepared and presented to Hanna Bratman as a sign of our respect and admiration for her resilience and the immeasurable impact she has had in the Lakeview community and City as a whole.