Cyndee Schaffer is the daughter of Mollie Weinstein Schaffer and co-author of the publication of her mother’s letters.. “Mollie’s War” published by McFarland Publishers is the result of this endeavor. Cyndee has been married to her husband, Douglas Schwartz, since 1975. They live in Northbrook, Illinois and they have three children.

Cyndee Schaffer is the editor of the monthly Midwest Writers Association newsletter. She received a BSE in mathematics from Northwestern University and a MS in curriculum development from DePaul University. Cyndee’s work experience has taken her into three divergent careers.   First, she worked as a high school mathematics teacher in the inner city of Chicago. She co-wrote and edited mathematics textbooks for several publishing companies. Her next career led her into the “human side of computers” as an IT consultant writing training materials, conducting corporate training and testing computer systems.   In 2008, she changed careers again and collaborated with her 91-year-old mother writing a book based on the letters that her mother sent home to her family while serving as a WAC stationed in Europe during WWII.  “Mollie’s War” published by McFarland Publishers in 2010 is the result of this endeavour.

Cyndee shares her mother’s story by speaking to various groups including veterans groups, libraries, senior living facilities, women’s groups, men’s clubs and other organizations. She discusses the writing adventure from inspiration to publication.

Mollie Weinstein (now Schaffer) (1916 – 2012) was a shy, retiring young Jewish woman from Detroit who enlisted in the Women’s Army Corps (WACs) just months after it was established in 1943. Mollie Weinstein’s letters to her sister Beck (Rebecca Winston, 1912-1999), brother Jack (Jack Weinstein, 1922 –   ) and best friend Sarah (Sarah Weinstein, now Kaminsky) provide a chronology of her service as a WAC from its beginnings with her train trip to Daytona Beach, Florida for basic training in October 1943 to her first assignments in California and Georgia, her service overseas in England, France and Germany through her return to the United States on the Queen Mary in November 1945.

Mollie married Jack Schaffer in January 1946.  They had three children and lived in Chicago and Wheeling, Illinois.  During her career, Mollie worked as a medical records secretary at several local hospitals.   Jack passed away in 2000.   Mollie passed away on April 8, 2012.