Ruth Tenzer Feldman's Blog, page 8

44. Wyeth’s Christina and Grady the Cow

Miriam Hope (I called her “Little Mim“) became my life for nearly a year after Mim died. I can’t say I was the ideal surrogate grandmother, and, as you know by now, I’m not the motherly type. I’d expected to help Rachel with the baby for a few weeks until Rachel was well enough to handle all three children on her own, but I found I was still spending part of every day at Rachel’s even after Joshua started kindergarten in the fall of 1948, and Dagmar went to nursery school two mornings a week....

43. Miriam Hope Friis

I did not allow myself to collapse into despair when Ephraim called me with the news. Rachel depended on me. Mim depended on me. Instead I asked if Ephraim wanted help with arrangements and telephone calls. He said Sidney had volunteered to do all that.

I went food shopping next—can you believe it? I wanted to stock Rachel’s pantry, in case of any eventuality with her pregnancy.

Henry stayed home that day—it was a Friday, so the funeral would not be until after Shabbat, on Sunday. Henry told me...

42. Joshua’s Whoopee Cushion

Mim and I did bring off the birthday party for Sidney and Ephraim with as much joy as we could muster under the circumstances. Sidney invited a young man to join us—Robert was his name—and Robert helped to liven up the conversation by regaling us with antics from his hometown in Ohio.

“Sidney took a brave step by having Robert come here,” I told Mim later. I was tucking her into bed early, after she announced she had a horrible headache and left Sidney to get dessert for everyone. I knew she k...

41. The Part I Didn’t Want to Tell You

“I’m coming with you,” I said. Dr. Kravitz was Mim’s family doctor, and mine, too. Bertha Kravitz. Someone who, I imagine, had fought her way to get into medical school and to stay there, and to establish a highly respected practice in a male-dominated world. If Bertha had been our doctor then, Sidney would have gotten better care instead of nearly dying of whooping cough.

So I was there, you see, on December 29, 1947, to hear Mim tell Bertha about her symptoms: bloody discharge, bloating, gen...

40. Thanksgiving, 1947

Had I known that 1947 would have the last Thanksgiving that all of us would be together, I would have used one of those new reel-to-reel tape recorders as a centerpiece for the dining room table instead of a bouquet of mixed asters. Well, the world doesn’t work like that, does it? Characters have no idea what’s going to happen to them, just like in real life.

[image error]

Norman Rockwell’s “Freedom from Want” appeared in the March 6, 1943, Saturday Evening Post. This reminds me of Thanksgiving, 1947. The y...

39. Jackie Robinson and UFOs

Do you know how some years it feels like there’s a seismic shift in your universe? So many beginnings and endings. One of those years for Mim and me, after our road trip, was 1947.

First off, Stalin’s Red Army was reshaping Eastern Europe. I remember that Winston Churchill put his finger on it in ’46 when he said that an “iron curtain” had descended, dividing the democracies from the communist regimes. Poland, Hungary, Romania…one after the other. I don’t remember who first spoke about a “cold...

38. Celebrating a Century Between Us

In the joy category, see this fifty-dollar bill. That’s about how much Mim and I spent in honor of our turning fifty in 1946 (me in April and Mim in July). We celebrated on the California coast at a little town—it was little then—called Mendocino. Mind you, fifty dollars went a long way back then, and we had a glorious weekend, plus the drive there and back, which was an adventure in itself. The Mendocino trip was the second most memorable event for me in ’46. The friendship between Mim and m...

37. Joy and Sadness: A Year of Tears

And I thought I was at at my wit’s end in 1944? So much happened in 1945, that I can’t begin to tell you the half of it. What I remember most about that year is how often Mim and I cried—from happiness or tragedy.

I’ll spare you the see-saw of our emotions, by giving you my aspirin-applesauce summary of 1945. Back then we didn’t have chewable flavored aspirin. Mim used to give her kids crushed aspirin in a teaspoon of applesauce, followed by a teaspoon of just plain applesauce. First the yuck,...

36. Surrounded by Secrets

The trip to Portland was a resounding success. Hans and I shared all the delights of honeymooners without the honeymoon. We wanted to take a side trip to Mount Hood and stay at the new Timberline Lodge, but the roads were too icy and the lodge had closed for the duration of the war, so we made do with a hike in Washington Park.

The trip did Ephraim a world of good. He drank less after that, as I recall, and he took to writing Bella every few weeks. She was there when he needed her then…and lat...

35. Joshua, Bella, and Vanport City

Yes, the Helsingør Sewing Club had nothing to do with sewing and everything to with ferrying 6,000 Danish Jews to Sweden. Note even Henry guessed then how successful the “club” would be. Besides, he was focused on events closer to home.

Joshua Erik Friis came into the world at 4:37 a.m. on December 29, 1943. They named him in memory of Mim’s father, Julius, and in honor of one of Henry’s relatives. Rachel had a surprisingly easy delivery, and Joshua was a surprisingly fussy baby. He had all th...