The Conception

 B"H, 

Elders Set the Example

Deveira:  You let her get pregnant!

Bubbe Bracha:  No.

D:  You were supposed to be watching her.

BB:  I did.

D:  We go away for one short weekend and look what happens.  You didn't watch her!

BB:  Yes, I did.  Two young, healthy folks and then some things are not meant to be seen, only experienced.  This is what young people do.  I am not so old that I cannot remember.  


D:  We have a big problem.

First Yahrzeit - The Candle

B"H, 

Your Son, My husband...

What the hell is going on between you two?

Beatrice, it's a year since you died.  (Oy, I am going nuts.  I'm talking to a candle.)  It is sundown, everyone is home but no one is with me.  It is time to light the first yahrzeit candle for you.  Your son, my husband, should be doing this.  You were his mother, not mine.  You made that clear to me on so many occasions.  So, you might ask, why am I lighting this candle?  ... because I take care of these things.  Did you even notice who was taking care of this candle to elevate your soul?  Me.  I lit this candle for your sake.  Your son is not holding this burnt out match, I am.  

Please excuse me now.  I am preparing our Shabbos* menu.  

The Stuff of Living

B"H, 

The Twists and Turns of Life, 

So many surprises,

So many lessons,

So much mystery.

My dolls and stuffed animals disappeared one day.  There were no announcements.  It just happened.  No explanations.  It just happened.  Even my bride doll that sat on the silk cushion on my bedspread vanished.  I asked no questions.  I made no comments.  I was young.  Perhaps I was in third grade.  What was I to do?  No one to play with now, my imagination travelled inward.  Oh, suddenly, there was a piano.  Were music lessons my consolation prize?  Who knows?  But, I became a student with the same passion that I experienced when I played with my toys.  Perhaps I studied with even more intensity.  

Years later, I found my dolls and animals in a box in the basement.  I sat there surrounded by all my old friends and cried, "I never let you go.  You were taken from me."  Then I heard someone coming down the stairs.  I quickly packed everyone up and put the box back into storage.  Thank G-d, I now knew where they lived.  

Far Fom Home

B"H, 

NO PITY, Always Move Forward

Euphemia  and Sara were best friends.  For eight long years they apprenticed themselves to a fine dressmaker in London.  Now they boarded at the same ladies' rooming house in Sydney, Australia.  All of the Jewish seamstresses boarded with Raizel Blumberg.  Their work was hard but the times were exciting.  Raizel took good care of these young women so far from home and the watchful eyes of loving parents.  She even tried to be a matchmaker when her boarding house gave her a few moments.