Ruth Tenzer Feldman's Blog, page 10

24. Sailing into the Storm

Isn’t this an amazing photo? Reginald took it of Mim and me (I’m the one on the left) on the Île de France, the day we sailed.

Lewis Hine took this shot of men working on the Empire State Building.

Reginald Brightshire was an old friend of mine in New York. He owned an art gallery, and we sometimes traded pieces. Dear man. Reginald (he hated to be called “Reggie”) escorted us around New York for several days until our departure. We went up in the new Empire State Building, and we heard Jane Fro...

23. Everything To Fear

Even as the economy worsened here and in Europe during the early 1930s, Mim and I had a lot to be thankful for. Certainly my resources were stretched, since fewer people could afford to purchase fine art. On the other hand, artists gave me paintings in exchange for boarding as guests in my home, and I later sold many of the paintings at my gallery—and gave the artists a decent share of the sale.

Ephraim struggled to keep all four of his assistants in the print shop, even though business was sl...

22. Life and Death and Celebrations

The Angel of Death did come to Mim’s family in 1930, but not for Sidney, thank heavens. In June of that year, Mim got the news that her father had died.

“Mama wrote that he went peacefully in his sleep,” she told me. “They buried him in a tiny Jewish cemetery near their town. Papa always did like the countryside. Mama’s going back to Paris. She feels at home there.”

“Say the word and we’ll leave for France,” I said, because I usually could read Mim’s mind.

“Maybe next year,” she said. “Sidney’s...

21. The Saga of Charlie and Snuffles

So there we were, the day after the stock market crash, and the day before Halloween 1929, and you would have thought the monsters had come out early. Mim glared at Ephraim as if he were an ogre for refusing to give her prayer shawl to their children if Mim died. Ephraim stared back, as if Mim were possessed.

“I’ll see to Sidney,” I said, but Mim blocked my exit. She handed the prayer shawl to me and practically hissed at Ephraim.

“Florrie has it for now. Satisfied?”

He rubbed the back of his ne...

20. Facing the Unfathomable

When I found Mim on Black Tuesday, I did as she asked and helped her to bed. Then I gave Sidney cookies and milk and read to him from Winne the Pooh. Mim emerged from the bedroom about half an hour later, completely refreshed. She kissed Sidney on the top of his head and smiled at me.

“I’m fine, now. Florrie, it was wonderful. Terrifying but wonderful. It felt so good pursue justice again.”

I had no clear idea what Mim meant. She was always ways to help the needy, and you should have heard her...

19. An Unbelieveable End to the 1920s

Bessie Coleman

I remember that several celebrities died that year—1926—but Mim’s father stayed this side of the grave. The ace pilot Bessie Coleman was killed when she fell out of a plane her mechanic was flying. The art world lost Claude Monet and Mary Cassatt. Harry Houdini died on Halloween, a suitable date for a magician, don’t you think?

The death that caused the biggest sensation in 1926 was of Rudolph Valentino. What an attractive man he was—only 31 years old, just a year older than Mim...

18. Miss Marmalade

Mim had so recently recovered from her struggle with anxiety that I dreaded another downturn when I told her about her father’s illness. At first she said nothing. Then she started to pace the room, an old habit of hers.

Finally she turned and faced me. “Why didn’t my mother tell me sooner? I would have come with you,” she said. “Florrie, is he really at death’s door?”

“I honestly don’t know,” I told her.

A stamp of mine from a Paris friend, but that’s another story!

Mim called her Uncle Hermann...

17. Revelations in Paris

During January of 1925, I watched Mim bloom again. Soon after she lit Ephraim’s birthday candle, she returned to work at Double-J Printers. Both children were in school by then, and now she was freer to pursue her typography.

Nellie Ross

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“Ma” Ferguson

It was a double victory for women that January, too, with Nellie Ross and Ma Ferguson taking office. Mim was well enough to rejoice. Nellie Ross became the first woman governor in the United States after her husband, who’d been the governor, sudden...

16. Light One Candle

The day after Mim’s birthday, I paced the art gallery and held my tongue. That was a Saturday. Shabbat. Ephraim would be home with Mim and the children, and I didn’t want to disturb them. But we five were having a picnic the next day (Kenton was in LA on business—or so he said), and that’s where I planned to confront Ephraim. Mim needed to go to a sanitarium. Her family doctor was doing next to nothing. Enough was enough.

I think best surrounded by the creative spirit that pours itself onto sk...

15. The Valley of the Shadow of Death

Mim told me that she was taking the brisket out of the oven when she felt blood oozing down her thigh. She called Ephraim first, because he was downstairs in the shop. Then she telephoned me at the art gallery, but I’d already left. We planned to dine together before going to Yom Kippur services that night. Luckily the babysitter was already at Mim’s house.

Ephraim called from the hospital with the awful news. By the time I got there, she had lost the baby. A boy.

“It’s just like the baby boy M...