Sam was extremely good looking. A very good dancer with a twinkle in his eye, dancing was big when he was growing up and he was a star on the dance floor. While his good looks and light-footed charm earned him some ease in life, Sam also faced hard lessons. Rifka, his mom, had experienced Read More
Tag: Jews
THE FORGOTTEN ONES: and stubborn hope
My father’s mother, Rifka, was a young woman living in Poland in the early 1900s. Pogroms against the Jewish people were common in her little community in Galicia. These recurring outbreaks of violence created desperate conditions and the Jewish people sought to escape. Little did they know it was to get much worse in Galicia, not better, in Read More
THE PHYSICS OF LOVE: Trimming rose bushes
Last week I cut back my double knock out rose bushes. Here’s the crazy thing. I have had these rose bushes for ten years. Every year when I cut them back, I get all scratched up, I struggle like nobody’s business, and often I fail. When my sons help, they do a decent job. I Read More
PARENTS PASSING: And the new family
Kindness: I am not going to put forth a canonized mom, i.e. a gentle soul who never had a bad word to say about anybody. My mom called it as she saw it. And she didn’t always like what she saw. That being said, she had a huge heart. She felt for the suffering of Read More
A POOR GIRL FROM THE BRONX
Earthiness: My mom’s favorite food was “a good hotdog”. Even when my father, late in life, became financially successful and could afford nice restaurants, my mom was true blue. Zero affectations, she was as down to earth as they come. Yes, her jokes were sometimes “dirty”. She mixed it up as she covered some “cleaner” Read More
MESHUGANA
Switching gears now, it’s easy to focus on the bad. I learned so many wonderful things growing up. Many of those things, I speculate have passed down through the generations. Starting with, Zest for life: I don’t know anybody who could beat my mom’s energy and humor. This lady was “the bomb” in today’s positive Read More
AN IMMIGRANT’S STORY: After Ellis Island
My family, like so many Jews fleeing persecution and harm, arrived in the U.S. scarred and having survived trauma. This was the early 1900s. I can imagine their enormous relief and gratitude to arrive in the United States and be allowed to stay. Of course my grandparents would likely have been killed in the Shoah if Read More