Layla's American Dream

She felt lost. At age 38, Layla had failed to save her marriage, failed in her career path, and felt she was failing her son too. She felt the American dream slipping through her fingers. Her contract was supposed to be renewed, but instead, she and her team were being terminated. She had just refinanced her house, so selling it was not an option. She would soon be crumbling under debt and the prospects of finding a job in the immediate future amid the COVID-19 pandemic were rather slim. She needed cash and fast. Maybe she would sell her car and get a beater until she could land another job in a few months?

As she sat, immersed in her thoughts, her ex stopped by to pick up the last batch of his mail and see their son. He brought in his letters, an amazon package, two flyers, and a letter from a David Shapiro, probably an ad for some service or another. She set it aside. After yet another heated conversation with her ex, Layla was fed up.

Sami took their toddler out for pizza, so she sat contemplating her computer, thinking of contacting yet another recruiter on LinkedIn. She decided to get a glass of water first. As she headed to the kitchen, she grabbed the ads and tossed them in the trash. She almost threw the other letter too, but thought she should probably open it first. Unexpectedly, that was the right decision.

After reading it, she called this mysterious Mr. Shapiro. He told her he had found her through an ancestry website and tracked her through a private investigator. At that moment, she realized she had indeed done a DNA test a couple of years earlier, but had forgotten her log-in credentials… Not that it mattered, she knew every member of her family, didn't she? She agreed to meet with Mr. Shapiro, curiosity was eating away at her. Plus, any distraction from her current predicament was welcome.

David drove down to Annapolis from his home in Brooklyn the following day. At least, her son was at daycare and she could talk without spending her time being interrupted by the four-year-old or trying to ward off tantrums and mood swings. Layla was startled when she saw David. He had piercing blue eye and was probably slightly younger than her father, but he had similar features to her dad. They could have been brothers. How was that possible?

Upon meeting, David said: "Imma, that is my mother, wanted you to have this. He handed her a check for $20,000."

Layla, baffled and ill at ease, could not string a sentence together. After recollecting her thoughts, she said, "What is this for? And who is your mother?"

David remained silent. Slowly, he replied: "Did you know your grandfather?" She could see he was struggling with many emotions.

"Of course! He passed away when I was 15 and had been battling Alzheimer for a couple of years," she said.

"Too bad," David said. "I guess he may not have told you about Dina, then?"

Layla had a distinct memory from her 14th birthday. They were visiting her grandparents and while it was always hit or miss, that time her grandpa held her hand with affection and told her how much he had missed her. She had been touched, thinking he was having a moment of lucidity… So touched in fact that she cried with emotion. But her joy was short-lived, as he proceeded to call her Dina.

Who was Dina? Nobody could answer that question for her at the time. Maybe Mr. Shapiro could shed some light on this mystery. He grandmother had turned crimson red when she asked about Dina a couple of years later and Layla's father told her to drop it.

Layla had moved to the US at age 18, and despite the occasional visits to see her parents, she had indeed dropped it.

David asked if she perhaps wanted to bring her son to Brooklyn for a visit. Dina's house would be put on the market soon, but she could pick out whatever mementos she wanted and he would endeavor to explain more about his mother. Could she trust this stranger? After all, she knew nothing about him. But then, who gives a random stranger $20,000 as part of some inheritance from his mother? Layla was too intrigued to resist finding out more.

Five days later, Layla put Adam in his booster seat and drove up to Brooklyn. As much as she hated New York traffic, she wanted to have her car at her disposal in case she was not comfortable. They started with a visit to the Brooklyn Children's Museum to "break the ice." She started warming up to David's jovial personality and friendly demeanor. At least, she no longer felt awkward about being with this stranger. He had a calming presence. During their discussion, she found out he had married once, but his wife died of cancer. Her heart went out to him. He told her that his loss made it impossible for him to commit to someone else. All afternoon, they skirted around the topic of Dina, but did not talk about the mystery woman.

After dinner, Layla put her son to bed and went to sit with David by the chimney. He handed her a little black book. "Here," he said. "You will understand mom's story better if you read it in her own words. I probably should have brought her diary and given it to you when I came down to Annapolis, but I also wanted to make sure you would come up and see her home and pictures of her for yourself. She would have wanted you to visit."

Layla was grateful for the opportunity to finally find out who Dina was. She glimpsed a few pictures of the brunette who reminded her of her paternal aunt. She had the same brown eyes as her grandfather and the same loose curls Layla had inherited from her paternal aunt. It dawned on her that Dina must be a relative.

Layla retreated to the guest bedroom. She perched on the queen bed and started reading. Dina Shapiro, born Dina Cohen was her grandfather's sister. That meant David was her dad's cousin. What a surprising turn of events? But while her grandfather, Yaaqub Cohen [born Jacob] was a Muslim convert, Dina had remained Jewish.

Like her, Dina had left her ancestral home at age 18. But while Layla left for the US as a student, her great aunt had married a French soldier and left Fez for a new life in France in 1938. Morocco had been a French protectorate and she had hoped to get an education as a nurse in France. Little did she know that another war was going to engulf Europe and most of the world the following year.

Apparently, the family thought her dead during World War II. Reports of what Hitler was doing to the Jews reached Morocco, and while many thought them exaggerated, the world was at war, and people often died in bombings and because of starvation.

Dina's little black book talked at length of two torturous years at Dachau. Layla felt visceral pain grip her, her eyes were brimming with tears at the thought of a young Dina hoping for survival, clinging to hope…

If only she had stayed in Morocco, close to her loved ones! At least the Sultan protected the Jewish population and the British and Americans eventually liberated the country from the grip of the Vichy government in 1942, albeit not completely! At least, unlike their European counterparts, Moroccan Jews were not sent to death camps!

All those years, Layla's grandpa had longed for his younger sister and assumed her dead! She never met his wife or children… and he never knew what became of her for certain. He must have known she would have understood his choice to convert. After all, neither one of them had been that religious. He was Moroccan first. Religion, like love, was a matter of the heart: his belonged to Fatima, his employer's daughter, Layla's grandmother.

That they may all meet in the Hereafter was a small consolation.

Upon leaving Dachau where her husband had been executed by a German SS officer five months before liberation in 1945, Dina had been treated for typhus by the Red Cross.

It was while at the clinic that she met David's father. He was a US Army Captain. Like her, Levy was a Jew. But the language barrier took some time to overcome. Where Dina's injuries shrouded her heart, Levy's were visible. His foot had been amputated after it became infected from shrapnel that had been lodged there after an explosion. The dashing American was lucky not to have died of sepsis. She read him some verses from the Torah daily and they conversed in broken Hebrew and French. He made it his mission to teach her English to occupy some of his time. Once Dina recovered, she stayed on at the clinic as a volunteer nurse, tending to those who were injured or ill.

A few weeks later, she thought of going back to Morocco, but wasn't sure how she was going to get there. She was both broke and broken. Levy asked her to marry him and she agreed. She accompanied him to the United States. There, he resumed his career as a lawyer and she as a nurse. He passed away in 1987.

Dina had attempted to find her family in Morocco when she traveled there with Levy in 1965. Alas, by then her father had passed away, joining her mother who had died of the Spanish flu mere months after giving birth to her. For his part, Dina's brother had left Fez. She was told he might have moved to Canada, France, or possibly Israel? She was not sure but kept hoping for small mercies. She did not know that her brother had converted and married in Morocco, or she would have stayed longer and looked in other cities besides Fez. Looking for him was like attempting to find a needle in a haystack, especially with so many Jews emigrating amid growing discontent with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Eventually, she gave up, and assumed he had moved to Israel or enlisted in the army and perished like so many others.

It wasn't until 2019 that her son told her he had found a cousin on an ancestry website. There "on the internet," he showed her Layla and her tree, citing Ahmed as her father and Yaaqub as her grandfather. That could not be true! Ahmed was a Muslim name and Dina's brother was called Jacob, not Yaaqub. The site mentioned that he was deceased, so she would not know anyway!

It took Dina a few weeks to digest the news that her brother had likely converted to Islam and that he had passed away. After all, DNA does not lie. Jewish or Muslim, that did not matter, Layla was her kin, and she was determined to reunite with her. Alas, she did not reply to the messages David sent on the ancestry website.

Days after her 99th birthday that same year, Dina felt her days were numbered. She made David promise to find his cousin and hand her $20,000 from his mother's estate should she not live long enough to meet her in person. She also asked him to give her the little black book. She wrote one last page stating: "If you are reading this, it means I am gone. Know that you are loved, although we have never met. I hope you can introduce David to your family. See, he was an only son and finding cousins might be a balm to his soul. We never thought we would be blessed with a child after all the trauma at Dachau. I had him seven years after coming to the US."

For Layla, it was settled, she would build a bond with her father's cousin and would try to introduce them to one another. She owed Dina that much. After all, the $20,000 would prevent her from foreclosing on her home and could help her get on her feet until she landed another job.

Upon sharing the news with her father, he promised to fly and meet his long-lost cousin once both men could get their COVID-19 vaccines.

In the following weeks, Layla found another job. A few months later, her father and aunt flew in to visit with their cousin, and the family was reunited.

She realized the beauty of the American dream also offered the possibility of having such a diverse family, including Muslims, Jews, old, and young.