In Love With An Older Man 5

November 1990

Without saying a word, Carly stalked into her bedroom and slammed the door shut behind her. Cindy glanced up in surprise.

"She just found out Milli Vanilli were lip synching all along," Jake explained.

Accustomed to her teenage stepdaughter's moodiness, Cindy just smiled and shook her head.

A few minutes later Gary came in and hugged and kissed Cindy. "Holidays coming up soon," he reminded her. "First night of Hanukkah is December twelfth this year."

"Oh wow, that's right. I have to buy everybody eight presents instead of just one."

Gary laughed. "Eight little presents instead of one big one, remember. Tickets to a movie, for example."

"But no Milli Vanilli for Carly."

Gary looked questioningly at his son.

"She just found out they're fakes," Jake told him.

"Thanks for the warning. You haven't met my grandmother yet, have you, Cindy?"

"I don't think so."

"You'll love her. She's ninety-eight now. Born in Russia, immigrated to the United States in her teens. Everyone calls her 'Bubbe Golda.' Have you ever seen 'Fiddler On The Roof'?"

"No, but I saw 'The Sound Of Music.' They're similar, right?"

Gary frowned. "Not really. If you watch 'Fiddler On The Roof' that will give you a pretty good idea of what my grandmother's life was like when she was young."

Cindy added 'watch 'Fiddler On The Roof' ' to her mental to-do list, so that she would be ready to meet Gary's Bubbe Golda.

December 1990

"She has a very thick Yiddish accent," Gary told Cindy. "You have to listen very carefully to understand what she says."

"I will be sure and do that," Cindy promised.

"And sometimes she tells the same stories over and over," Jake added.

"I love to hear her stories about the way life used to be a long time ago," Carly retorted.

They arrived at Bubbe Golda's house and rang the doorbell. A middle-aged African-American woman opened the door.

"Well, how do you do there, Mr. Gary. It's so nice of you and your lovely family to come and visit." Cindy smiled and extended her hand. "I'm Gary's wife, Cindy."

"It's very nice to meet you. I'm Miss Mabel. I help take care of Bubbe Golda."

As soon as they stepped into the house, Cindy saw Gary's grandmother sitting in her wheelchair.

Miss Mabel turned the wheelchair to face the family. Cindy thought that Bubbe Golda must be the oldest person she had ever met. Her hair was completely white, and she wore it in loose curls all over her head. The skin of her face was lined with many wrinkles, and her eyes were a beautiful clear blue behind her eyeglasses. They lit up as soon as she saw Gary and his family.

"Hello Bubbe." Gary went to her and embraced her. "It's so good to see you again."

"Well, hello there..." Her voice trailed off.

"It's Gary." He smiled. "I'm married again, Bubbe. This is my new wife Cindy."

"Cindy. It's nice to meet you too, dear. And the children..." She looked confused again.

"I'm Carly, and this is Jake."

"Of course." She laughed. "You'll have to forgive me. My memory isn't what it used to be."

"Oh, that's all right, Bubbe," Gary assured her.

"Would you like some refreshments?" Miss Mabel asked after they were seated.

"No, thanks, we're fine," Gary and Cindy replied. Jake started to say something, and Gary frowned and shook his head at him.

Cindy was at a loss for words. What in the world did one talk about with someone who was ninety-eight years old? As it turned out, she needn't have worried.

"But then, a lot of things aren't the way they used to be," Bubbe Golda went on. "In the neighborhood I grew up in, we were all very poor, but we helped each other as much as we could. Everyone in the shtetl, we were all family. No one was a stranger. For us it was the best way to show our devotion to God, to care for one another. Keeping the Sabbath was important, studying the Torah was important, but helping our neighbors was the most important thing of all."

"I'll never forget the day the pogrom came to the shtetl. It started out as just another quiet day with everyone going about their usual business, when all of a sudden we heard a terrible commotion. We children were very afraid and went and hid under the bed. We could hear the angry mob shouting 'Kill the Jews!' My father grabbed a knife and was going to go outside and fight them, but my mother begged him not to."

" 'We must leave right away,' my father said. 'If we stay here we will all be killed.' We children heard what was going on and were so afraid that we started crying. Our parents snatched us up and we fled out the back door."

"We hid until the commotion was over and my father deemed it safe to return. We went back to find only the empty shell of a house. All of our belongings were gone. But that wasn't the worst of it. We heard loud wailing from next door and went to see what had happened. It turned out that our next door neighbor had been killed, stabbed to death while attempting to defend his family. We were all so shocked and saddened. We had known the man our entire lives and he had been almost like an uncle to us. That was when we knew that we could stay there no longer. The next pogrom could mean all our deaths."

"I remember the day we boarded the ship to come to the United States. I felt so very sad about leaving my friends and the only home I had ever known. My little sister was crying, and I held her hand. 'It will be all right. God will take care of us,' I told her. I held my prayer book tightly in the other hand until we were all safely aboard the ship."

"The journey across the ocean seemed endless to us. To help pass the dull days, we children played games, pretending that we were Noah's family on the ark with all those animals. I got pretty good at imitating horses, donkeys, and elephants." She laughed again.

"I'll never forget the day my parents called us children together. 'Look over there,' they told us, pointing. We saw a giant statue of a woman with one arm in the air holding a torch. 'That's the Statue of Liberty,' they told us. My mother had tears running down her face. 'We are free at last!' she told us. My father whooped with joy, and we children danced around shouting excitedly. We were so happy that our long journey was finally nearly over with. So you see...is it Jackie?"

"Cindy." Cindy hoped that she didn't sound rude.

"Cindy. This land that you live in, it's a wonderful place. Never forget how fortunate you are to have the freedom and privileges you enjoy here."

"Oh, no, ma'am. I never will."

Bubbe Golda's head had fallen forward, and she let out a loud snore.

"We'd better leave. It's time for her nap," Gary said softly.

"Come back any time you want. She's always so happy to see you," Miss Mabel told them.

Cindy wasn't able to say anything at all on the way home. As Gary pulled into the driveway, he heard her sobbing quietly.

"What's wrong, honey?" Cindy cried so rarely that Gary knew that whatever it was, it had to be something pretty serious.

"Your grandmother's story...it was just so sad...so terribly sad...I just have such a hard time believing that those things actually happened..."

"Prejudice and hatred cause people to do terrible things," Gary said gently.

"Yes, but today it hit very close to home."

Gary held her tenderly and kissed her tears away. "I love you so much, Cindy Greenberg."

"I love you too, Gary."

"I know you do." He held her for a few minutes longer. "Are you going to be all right?"

"I'm fine. Don't worry about me."

They got out of the car and walked to the house hand in hand, a sacred silence between them which neither wanted to break with words.