Poland family ready to share immigrant grandmother's story

CANFIELD

When a Vindicator reporter interviewed Simone Arnold years ago about her work teaching English as a second language, Arnold insisted that the real story was her mother, a German immigrant and prolific translator.

Hildegard “Hilda” Taindel, however, didn’t want to be interviewed.

“She said, ‘Absolutely not,’” said Arnold.

After living for years in communist Romania, Taindel was never comfortable drawing attention to herself.

“My grandma, her whole life, was afraid someone was going to take her away,” said her granddaughter, Andrea Simkins of Boardman.

Two months after her death July 19 at age 93, however, her family was ready to share her story.

“This is for her,” said Arnold.

Gathered around Simone Arnold’s dining table at her McCarty Drive home, she, Simkins and Simkins’ father, Andrei Taindel, reflected on the woman they affectionately call “Buni,” a shortened form of the Romanian word for grandmother.

Read more about her life in Saturday's Vindicator or on Vindy.com.