As friends, colleagues, and admirers gathered for a celebration of her life at Fairfield Hills Saturday September 26, one could easily imagine Julia Wasserman somewhere beyond the wispy clouds that dotted the afternoon sky, head cocked earthward, listening to the hundreds of stories unfolding about the indomitable former state representative who did so much for — and meant so much to — the community she called home.

While only a half dozen of those in attendance made their way to the microphone, offering personal glimpses into the wiles and wit of Mrs Wasserman, those stories evoked a mixture of laughter, tears, and glowing admiration for this small but powerfully determined woman who began a life full of adventure escaping the Nazi regime in Germany as a teenaged girl.

One of the most poignant moments of the nearly three-hour public reception came when Mrs Wasserman’s niece Leslie Flesch recalled accompanying her aunt back to the childhood home she fled 66 years earlier.

Before the pair was welcomed into the modest home by its current owners, Mrs Wasserman — perhaps for the first time — shared an amazing story. Mrs Wasserman related to her niece how her mother, who was planning an escape via a separate route, pinned a number of her valuable jewels inside her young daughter’s blouse.

“She was told to give one to each [Nazi] guard she met along the way,” Ms Flesch related, “as a means of thanking each one that was good, and for those who were not, as a bribe.”

The young girl eventually made it to safety in Italy with only one of her mother’s precious pieces left, a gold and ruby broach, which she suddenly produced and pressed into the hand of Ms Flesch as she sat there listening to the story over coffee.

“I want you to have it,” Mrs Wasserman told her niece.

While that remembrance left many dabbing their eyes, several stories from State Representative Arthur O’Neil, her “adopted African son” Musa Lubega, and former Connecticut governor M. Jodi Rell produced bursts of laughter.

Rep O’Neil recalled the countless trips he shared carpooling to Hartford with Mrs Wasserman during their years serving together. He said, perhaps not jokingly, that he planned to include the several stories related last Saturday, as well as so many others, into a book he imagined would be entitled Driving Ms Julia.

Mr Lubega regaled those at the event with an abbreviated history of their relationship, from the first time they met during a trip Mrs Wasserman made to visit with wild gorillas in Uganda, to her offer to fund his education in America, and the many adventures of his own that unfolded once he arrived here in Connecticut under the care of his “American mother.”

“When she loved you, she put you in her heart,” Mr Lubega said. “Julia was a saint to me and my family. Julia never gave me a fish, she taught me how to fish.”

Ms Rell observed that Mrs Wasserman, who never had children of her own, was nonetheless “maternal, often in a nonmaternal way.”

“Julia had the enthusiasm of a child and the energy of someone much younger than herself,” the former governor said. “She was determined, laser-focused, and stubborn — a quiet whirlwind of ideas and causes, a true survivor.”

First Selectman Pat Llodra related, “We became a better community because of Julia.”

The speaking portion of the event was opened with a blessing by Rabbi Shaul Praver, and concluded with remarks and a blessing by Monsignor Robert Weiss.

Rabbi Praver praised Mrs Wasserman as being elegant, and “an advocate who always promoted civil dialogue.”

Msgr Weiss closed reassuring that despite the many wonderful friends and rich experiences Mrs Wasserman shared during her time, she was now in a better place, intoning: “The souls of the just are in the hands of God.”