Naomi Harris - Haddon Hall

This is a touching story that has a Florida hotel as its centre stage. Miami Beach was the winter destination for many seniors throughout the 70s and 80s, when upwards of 20,000 “snowbirds” would migrate to the 2.5 mile stretch of beachfront. A depressed economy and cheap rents in the crumbling Art Deco hotels made it an ideal choice for the mostly Jewish retirees on a fixed income. Harris moved into Haddon Hall to embed herself with the hotel’s residents, becoming their surrogate granddaughter. She shows us an insider’s perspective of the changes that affected the lives of her “bubbehs and zaidehs”.