Once the seas were safe for families to set sail, Jack, holding fast to Bailey's hand, was seen walking down the gangplank into the new world, and … paraphrasing my dad: 'I was a bright-eyed, seven and a half year old, little greenhorn, who couldn’t speak a word of English, looking up at all the men standing on the dock, wondering which stranger would step toward me and prove to be my father …’
Finally, after eight years of separation, Bailey was reunited with her beloved Yacob, and my father met his father, at last. If you ask how I know Bailey had adored Yacob, my father had often expressed his mother's eyes shining with love whenever his father walked into the room. (Once again, hero worship runs rampant in our family :)
As you can imagine, my grandpa had spent years acclimating to big city life in America, whereas his wife and child, exclaiming in Yiddish, over this and that, found themselves wide-eyed, overwhelmed and disoriented as bustling crowds, hurrying here and there, jostled the pair, who could not stop gawking in awe at skyscrapers, climbing higher than any building they'd ever imagined.
Finally, after eight years of separation, Bailey was reunited with her beloved Yacob, and my father met his father, at last. If you ask how I know Bailey had adored Yacob, my father had often expressed his mother's eyes shining with love whenever his father walked into the room. (Once again, hero worship runs rampant in our family :)
As you can imagine, my grandpa had spent years acclimating to big city life in America, whereas his wife and child, exclaiming in Yiddish, over this and that, found themselves wide-eyed, overwhelmed and disoriented as bustling crowds, hurrying here and there, jostled the pair, who could not stop gawking in awe at skyscrapers, climbing higher than any building they'd ever imagined.
Within a year, my Aunt Sari was born. A year later, came Aunt Risa. And with that, my grandparents' family was complete. However, if you think that Jack's arrival in the new world suggests it's time for us to leap across the timeline, so my father can can cross a crowded room and sweep curvaceous Jennie off her feet and into his car, please think, again, because, my grandpa, Yacob, the diehard idealist, had not done with crossing oceans, and when next he'd accomplished the improbable, his wife, adult son and two preteen daughters were in tow.
So, before young Jack can meet the dark eyed, raven haired beauty, who'd prove to be the love of his life, we need to understand events which had propelled Yacob's strong sense of idealism to pack up his family after selling everything they'd owned (except for my grandma's prized clothes washer and stove, which Bailey had wisely refused to leave behind) in order to set sail across the expanse of the deep, blue sea, again …Geez!
So, before young Jack can meet the dark eyed, raven haired beauty, who'd prove to be the love of his life, we need to understand events which had propelled Yacob's strong sense of idealism to pack up his family after selling everything they'd owned (except for my grandma's prized clothes washer and stove, which Bailey had wisely refused to leave behind) in order to set sail across the expanse of the deep, blue sea, again …Geez!
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