Tell Me About Your Grandfather
my friend Fran said
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My friend Fran one of those people you could
talk to on the phone for hours I still
prefer the phone to zoom
and the unfortunate umbrella
Social Media I like hearing telephone voices
my friend Fran said
tell me about your grandfather
and I told her what little I know my family
did not write life down did not especially want
to tell difficult stories wanted to be sui generis Americans
to go to college maybe become doctors and lawyers
so the very little I actually know
was my grandfather Oscar
I believe he was rabbinic
one of three brothers
I never met the brothers
Eastern Europe to South Africa
to the small factory town where I was born
his brothers went south I’m not sure where
my grandfather died of a heart attack
the year I was born
I would ask his children
my father especially what he was like
my grandfather’s wife a Yiddish speaker
didn’t talk much to children
when my friend Fran asked about my grandfather
I deflected the conversation
because I know nothing.
Let me tell you about a cousin instead I said.
(Fran was OK with that.)
you made me think about a story i want to write about my grandfather. thank you. i felt appreciative of who he was in my life. my mother and i lived with her parents during world war 2 when i was a small child and my father was in the army. my mother was an only child and i the first grandchild- special times.....
So sad.