Both sets of grandparents had fled persecution in Europe, and upon landing at Ellis Island in New York, they thankfully embraced their adopted country, immediately took up menial labor, and raised large families of achievers.
After dinner, without the modern invention of television, political debates raged between my parents and the family, but all was mended when cousin Ruth sat down at the piano to accompany my father and three aunts, Laura, Shirley and Mary, as they sang old Yiddish and American folk songs in four-part harmony. I was mesmerized.
For me, they were musical giants, singing, swaying, smiling and beckoning. My dad, looked, I thought, movie-star handsome alongside my favorite Aunt Mary, a beautiful red-haired, green-eyed soprano who had rejected an offer to join the Metropolitan Opera in order to elope with her ne'er-do-well husband. While no one spoke of it much thereafter, everyone regretted Aunt Mary's decision.
))
mama courage prvotno napisa
