BE IT EVER SO HUMBLE...

I don't know about you, but I have always found it difficult saying 'goodbye'. I noticed it for the first time when I was Sixteen. My friend, Rozzie and her mother and sisters were moving from Windsor to California. Her Dad had passed away and her mom felt she needed a change.

I hated it. See, way back then, in the Dark Ages of the fifties, we didn't have internet...skype...email...cheap phone rates. We had snail mail and Ma Bell. And no one made a long distance call unless it was an emergency. Yes, my friends, although I don't remember the Pony Express, I am really that old.

Then nine years later I did my own version of Tevya at the train station. You remember that scene where his daughter is off to Siberia to join her love who was banished there? And they are standing at that little stop never knowing if or when they would ever see each other again? Of course you remember...how could anyone forget? Not a dry eye in the audience.

Where was I? Oh, yes, Anatevka...I mean Windsor. When I decided to move to Israel it was only for one year. My Dad AH took me to the airport. Bubbie Channah stayed home. She never ever went to the goodbye airport...only the hello one. So, I had said my goodbyes to my mother and we drove to the airport in Detroit. The trip took an hour. I had a headache. For a month I had a headache. And then it was time. We hugged and kissed and cried and said goodbye. My two girlfriends and I were off to Israel. (funny how once I was on the plane my headaches disappeared.)

No one had any money. Overseas phone calls were a fortune. And besides, in 1970 you just couldn't pick up the phone and make a phone call to America. We had to go to the Central Post Office on Jaffa Road near the Old City and book a time...usually at two in the morning, oy, and stand in line waiting for our turn.

Then one day we met C. at the beach in Tel Aviv. Hot. Humid. Sitting on the sand everyone talked to their neighbour, just like they still do on the busses. C. spoke a little English and was so happy to practice with us. We asked her to please watch our stuff while we ran into the water to cool off and we before we left that day we had become friends.

What we didn't know was that C. worked for the phone company. And not just the phone company...but for the long distance part of the phone company. One night in the middle of the night our phone rang. We jumped up and a familiar voice said, "Marallyn, your long distance call is ready." My heart started klapping and within a couple of seconds my mom and dad were on the line.

Once a month or so, we would get a phone call like that. And whoever's mom was on the line, after she hung up she would call the other moms.

Wadda life!

Yesterday, my brother Dovidle left to go back to Boulder.

You know how sometimes things are simply bashert (meant to be)? The first blizzard in Denver/Boulder that left them with three feet of snow happened just days before he was to fly to Israel, leaving him stranded for a couple of nights at his office. Then a window of clear skies and the airports opened and he was able to fly out. Then the snow started again leaving another couple of feet of snow. And a minor earthquake (never happens in Colorado). So even if his clients had wanted to keep their appointments they couldn't have gotten to his office. Yahooooo. But the avalanche on the highway yesterday was a bit too much already.

Since he had such a long stopover, he got a room at the airport for the night and will be flying home shortly, and should be arriving tfu tfu tfu in about twelve hours or so.

So we had to say goodbye. But my brother Dovidle always has to have a plan. Wanna hear ours? OK. When he gets back he's going to tell us how the trip was after breaking it up by spending the night in Europe. That way, maybe this summer, if we have the money and if we can, then I'll take Bubbie Channah and we'll go to the states for a visit.

Up until now I didn't think I could go because I didn't want to leave Ma for too long on her own. She's a pip but still 83 is 83 bli ayin ha rah ( that's Hebrew for tfu tfu tfu). And I didn't think that shlepping her on a long overseas flight was smart either.

Maybe now we will hop a plane, grab a room, and go visit America for a bit. Ahhhh, the stuff that dreams are made of.

So, with that thought in mind it wasn't so terribly awful saying goodbye this time. And besides, I have internet...email...skype...and cheap phone rates.

Wadda world!!!

Last night I slept in my own bed and was happy to be home. And last night I fell asleep full of ten days of bonding and healing with my mom and brother. Wadda gift!!! Thank you, God!

Thanks for being patient with me and I hope to get back to writing my blog every day again now. I missed you too.

Shavuha tov...a good week.

Have a great day...stay safe...and thanks for dropping in.