Brenner's Children's Shop in Norwood closing after 49 years
NORWOOD -- Nearly everyone in Norwood whose child wore a baptism or first communion outfit, or later joined a troop and needed a scout uniform, has stepped up to the counter at Brenner's.
The store sells children's clothing, religious outfits, scouting accessories, and some local school uniforms.
After 49 years, the Greenfield family will soon close up shop at Brenner's Children's Shop for good.
Aron Greenfield will turn 96 next week, which is remarkable considering it was a lie about his age that saved his life.
"I was 15. I would've gone to Auschwitz and into the chimney, as they say. But my mother said to me, 'Tell them you're 16,'" he recalled.
That lie, and a mother's love, spared him from death. But just barely.
"He told me, 'To the right,' and from that time on, I went to one concentration camp to another, and nine of them. Most of us couldn't walk anymore. Skin and bones. Skeletons. People do not understand what starvation means," Greenfield said.
He lost both parents, and seven siblings. Love and joy were stolen from him, but not forever. He'd find it again, decades later, at a Polish dance in Dorchester after meeting his wife Martha. Two have since built a family and a business.
"His life, he actually lived it through his customers' little kids because he didn't have any of that," said Martha.
Greenfield looked evil in the eye, but somehow kept a twinkle in his own; He stayed good inside. And it's a legacy of good that the family will leave downtown.
"It's something we always will treasure. Because this was our life, between the two of us," Martha added.
They are working on selling inventory before they finally close. They are looking forward to a move with their daughter's family and more time with their three grandchildren.
