Last week, I wrote about Bobeshi Rivqah. If you’d like to catch-up click here. This story does stand alone. Ironically, the locked cages in the photograph had the same feel as the ones shown at the Florida Holocaust Museum in Tampa, Florida.
Mama, can I go outside?”
“Go! But, don’t go far.”
From my stoop, I watched Mrs.O’Doherty and Bobeshi Rivqah talking.
“Rivqah, you’re telling me they used the same numbers?”
“Yes, can you believe that?”
Mrs.O’Doherty shook her head from side to side.
“They reused prisoner numbers from the dead; especially, is if they were moved to another camp,” Rivqah said. “Dehumanizing!”
Slowly, I made my way towards them.
They were taking about something I’d wondered about.
“Why do you have numbers on your arm, Bobeshi?”
She hugged me and said, “One day, you’ll know kleyn meydl, one day.”
Bright sunflowers had greeted Nadia each time she’d visited her baba Oksana.
As a small child, she’d watched her grandmother cook traditional Russian meals while recounting tales of her journey to the new land she’d eventually call home.
She’d traveled on a crowded boat with few belongings. The small amount of sunflower seeds she’d brought to eat were almost gone by the time she’d arrived.
Oksana decided to plant the leftover sunflower seeds in remembrance of her home; left behind.
Imprinted in Nadia’s heart, memories of her baba Oksana’s smile and love of sunflowers.
*****The dictionary terms and basic forms for grandfather and grandmother in Russian are dedushka and babushka. They’re often shortened for children to ded (grandfather) or baba (grandmother).
*****I’ve edited the last line to say ‘Died’ instead of ‘Passed’. A writer can learn from other writers many things to improve our writing. Neil @ Neil Macdonald Author thought it was clearer if I changed it. Thanks, Neil.
