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52 Ancestors Week 18 – Close Up
The theme for Week 18 (April 30 – May 6) is Close Up. One of the suggestions for this theme was a relative who lived close to you.
A couple of years ago I learned that I had lived less than a mile from one of my maternal grandfather’s nephews for several years (basically, most of the late 1980’s). I know my mother had his address and either his or his daughter’s phone number, but, for some reason, did not want me to contact him. I suspect he was shunned because he had married a non-Jewish woman, but there may be more to it than that..
In terms of people who I actually knew, my great-aunt Bernice and her her husband, Ely FUCHS, lived in Far Rockway, which was pretty near our house. Bernice was my grandmother’s youngest sister and, even though she claimed to be the same age as my mother, she was about 20 years older. She hadn’t married until she was in her mid-40’s, so they didn’t have any children. So my brother and I (and, I suppose, my two first cousins) sort of fulfilled that role. We’d stay with them when my parents went away for the weekend. I didn’t much care for that because Bernice was a terrible cook. Just visiting them was better, especially because we would all walk to the boardwalk, where we would play skee-ball and buy knishes at an excellent place called Jerry’s.
A couple of years ago I learned that I had lived less than a mile from one of my maternal grandfather’s nephews for several years (basically, most of the late 1980’s). I know my mother had his address and either his or his daughter’s phone number, but, for some reason, did not want me to contact him. I suspect he was shunned because he had married a non-Jewish woman, but there may be more to it than that..
In terms of people who I actually knew, my great-aunt Bernice and her her husband, Ely FUCHS, lived in Far Rockway, which was pretty near our house. Bernice was my grandmother’s youngest sister and, even though she claimed to be the same age as my mother, she was about 20 years older. She hadn’t married until she was in her mid-40’s, so they didn’t have any children. So my brother and I (and, I suppose, my two first cousins) sort of fulfilled that role. We’d stay with them when my parents went away for the weekend. I didn’t much care for that because Bernice was a terrible cook. Just visiting them was better, especially because we would all walk to the boardwalk, where we would play skee-ball and buy knishes at an excellent place called Jerry’s.