A Heart of Gold, a Dream of Peace

Maybe the problem is that those people whom Sadie Margolin has approached for help in building a memorial for world peace don’t possess the same burning passion for the project, sparked by the happy and bitter memories of her own life.

Those memories shout from the letters, pictures and paintings that fill the 88-year-old’s small room at the Jewish Home for the Aging in Reseda.

It’s 1914, and the 5-year-old girl and her family, fearing death at the start of World War I, are fleeing their native Lithuania.

It’s 1931 in New York City, and she meets a handsome jeweler named Joe, the man of her dreams.

It’s 1954, and Joe, only 48, dies of a heart attack, leaving behind Sadie and their two children.

The day before Joe died, he gave her a gold locket he designed. It had six open hearts, five bearing important dates of her life. One circle Joe left open for her to fill in--the date of his death. She couldn’t get herself to do it.

Instead, Sadie thought, what better way to honor her husband’s life--and make sense of hers--than to build a giant replica of the locket as a memorial for world peace that all Americans could enjoy?

Over the decades, she has approached everyone from politicians to museum and foundation officials with the proposal. All lauded her efforts. They wished her good luck. Help? Sorry, no help.

Among those who have heard her idea is the first lady. A letter dated Nov. 20, 1995, reads:

“Thank you for sharing with me your suggestion for a Memorial for World Peace. I appreciate having a chance to hear about your life and your project. Your work is a wonderful tribute to your husband, Joe. My thoughts and prayers are with you.” Hillary Rodham Clinton.

Sadie shares her room at the Jewish Home with her sister Anna, 91. Their American journey began with another older sister and their mother as the war came upon their homeland.

“I remember the horses’ hooves” as cavalry galloped through her village, seeking out Jews, she said. “We put dark curtains over the window.”

On the run, hiding in the darkness of stables, they slowly made their way to a ship, the Kroonland, which they hoped would take them to America. Once on the ship, people huddled in corners and cried for those they had left behind--Sadie’s grandmother among them.

When the Statue of Liberty came into sight, the newcomers yelled “free, free, free.” Sadie did not know what the words meant, but the small girl whispered them as she stepped onto Ellis Island.

In America, their mother died and the girls were put in orphanages. It was at the Hebrew Orphan Asylum that Sadie, interacting with children of all colors and languages, learned to appreciate all the nations of the world.

In 1931, Joseph Margolin was a handy young jewelry expert who worked in a shop on New York’s 48th Street. Sadie, then 22, worked as a receptionist at a similar shop on 46th Street.

The two met when a mutual friend arranged an encounter after taking to Joe a piece of jewelry from Sadie that needed repair. “I’ve heard so many good things about you that last night I read the book of etiquette,” Joe told her. He was tall, with beautiful eyes, Sadie says.

He was too shy to do it, so six weeks after they met, she kissed him.

“I said, ‘Only promise me that our children will never go hungry.’

“He promised.”

Joe worked into the late hours of the night, sometimes with a light on in the closet so he would not disturb his family. He was self-trained in all his endeavors. He never went to school, but his paintings--some of which hang today from Sadie’s walls--were captivating.

On Aug. 13, 1954, after engraving “My Life” on the locket along with the date of his and Sadie’s wedding and the birth dates of their children in the hearts, he applied for a patent.

He died the following day.

Sadie finished the paperwork for the patent. She decided that instead of “My Life,” the locket should be called “Our Life,” to symbolize both their lives.

Then she decided on the final name, “Our Life--the Wheel of Life,” as a gesture of goodwill toward all nations.

She also decided to attempt to build the memorial. Through the years she has made her pitch to anyone who would listen--the White House, the Ford Foundation, Disneyland and Caesar’s Palace in Las Vegas, among others.

All have been sympathetic, but nothing more.

“It hurts because nobody appreciates it,” she said.

The small locket is made of gold, about 4 inches high.

The replica, as Sadie envisions it, would be 12 feet tall. The six hearts would display the words “All Nations.” A motor would continually turn the open circle to each of the hearts.

It would honor those who have died in all wars, like the one that drove her from the Old World to the New.

It would cost $500,000, she estimates.

“I still remember my grandmother’s last hug and how she gave whatever money she had so we could pay the Kroonland ship to America,” she said. “What happened to her is my reason to make this memorial.”