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.  



Euphemia was especially pleased with the shidduch*  that Raizel had made for her.  Kalonymus, Kalman for short, was a kind young man who came from north of Nimotsch (a very small town near Shavl, Lithuania, in the late 19th century).  She came from south of Nimotsch by the river inn.  What a coincidence!  They became fast friends.  


Euphemia was always a proper girl and she became a proper young woman even when she was so far from family.  Sara was not.  One day Kalman came to his dear friend Euphemia to tell her that he and Sara were to be married.  His face was filled with grief at being caught up in a big mistake.  Euphemia said nothing.  She walked away from Kalman.  She quit her job and received her final payment.  This plus her savings would buy a ticket to Canada.  Back at the boarding house she paid her room and board to Mrs. Blumberg, ripped Sara's photo so she could spit at it four times instead of once, and quietly packed her life into a neat bundle that she could carry away with her.  


Euphemia would find her brother in Toronto.




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