Tomorrow I'll be with my cousins in New Jersey. I grew up in Passaic, where my family lived on Lucille Place, a few steps from the apartment house in the picture. When my cousins and I are together we're seldom nostalgic for the past. We tell jokes and talk about the present. A while back there was some talk about putting together a family tree but no one's done anything about it. Like all families, ours began long ago, but we have few records, only a paper with information about my grandfather's becoming an American citizen.
I'm grateful that he and my grandmother had the good sense to leave Europe. They had lived in a village, probably Jalowka, near Bialystok. From a population of approximately 800 Jews in Jalowka, there is a record of only one Jew surviving the Nazis. Most of them died in the gas chambers in Treblinka. There are no Jews now in Jalowka, still a rural village.
I've read that Jalowka is one of the best places to see the European Roller bird and like to think that my grandmother saw this brilliant blue bird. She was fond of blue and grew Heavenly Blue morning glories. Each blossom lasts only one day.
That is one beautiful bird. Have a fab reunion!
ReplyDeleteAhh, same colors as my kingfishers. I could learn to live from you, Miriam. And I'm grateful to have found you.
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ps. My word verification on the above post was cantor.
ReplyDeletehow touching and painful and fortunate and unfortunate and tragic
ReplyDeleteHello, my dears. I learned that my great great uncle had been a blacksmith and the postmaster in Jalowka. None of my cousins wanted to go to Jalowka, but I thought I might like to feel its weather.
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