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What a delight! Chronologically, this is the third book in the series (although All of a Kind Family Downtown, the second, was written later).
We are back with our favorite family on the Lower East Side of New York for more anecdotes and adventures. We enjoy a May Day celebration, Charlie's antics with the baking of the weekly challah, and most importantly, Uncle Hyman finally meets the woman of his dreams – Lena, a new immigrant who happens to be an expert seamstress and cook and most importantly, loves him back. The romance progresses and they decide to marry, but there's a major problem: Lena is a victim of the latest polio epidemic, and though she recovers, she doesn't feel she should marry Hyman because she now walks with a pronounced limp. Hyman is heartbroken.
I felt so sad reading this episode, as it reminded me of my own dear grandmother, Pearl. Pearl was technically not my grandmother, but actually my great aunt. Her older sister Jennie (my natural grandmother) was my grandfather's first wife but Pearl, a victim of polio which left her with one leg shorter than the other and a severe lifelong limp, lived with Jennie and her family for many years after their own mother died in the flu epidemic of 1918. Jennie died before I was born, and for sake of propriety and as Jewish custom dictates, my grandfather married his sister-in-law. Years later, I once asked Grandmom Pearl, a pretty, loving and warm-hearted woman, why she hadn't married as a young woman. After some hesitation, she explained that she had had a boyfriend and they wanted to marry, but the young man's mother dissuaded him because Pearl was "crippled". How I ached for Pearl experiencing such cruelty! We never spoke of it again, and Grandmom remained her cheerful and indomitable self, but I often think of how heartbroken she must once have been.
It worked out much better for Hyman and Lena. The family stepped in and convinced Lena that she should marry Hyman, whom she dearly loved, and the wedding was celebrated joyfully.
We are back with our favorite family on the Lower East Side of New York for more anecdotes and adventures. We enjoy a May Day celebration, Charlie's antics with the baking of the weekly challah, and most importantly, Uncle Hyman finally meets the woman of his dreams – Lena, a new immigrant who happens to be an expert seamstress and cook and most importantly, loves him back. The romance progresses and they decide to marry, but there's a major problem: Lena is a victim of the latest polio epidemic, and though she recovers, she doesn't feel she should marry Hyman because she now walks with a pronounced limp. Hyman is heartbroken.
I felt so sad reading this episode, as it reminded me of my own dear grandmother, Pearl. Pearl was technically not my grandmother, but actually my great aunt. Her older sister Jennie (my natural grandmother) was my grandfather's first wife but Pearl, a victim of polio which left her with one leg shorter than the other and a severe lifelong limp, lived with Jennie and her family for many years after their own mother died in the flu epidemic of 1918. Jennie died before I was born, and for sake of propriety and as Jewish custom dictates, my grandfather married his sister-in-law. Years later, I once asked Grandmom Pearl, a pretty, loving and warm-hearted woman, why she hadn't married as a young woman. After some hesitation, she explained that she had had a boyfriend and they wanted to marry, but the young man's mother dissuaded him because Pearl was "crippled". How I ached for Pearl experiencing such cruelty! We never spoke of it again, and Grandmom remained her cheerful and indomitable self, but I often think of how heartbroken she must once have been.
It worked out much better for Hyman and Lena. The family stepped in and convinced Lena that she should marry Hyman, whom she dearly loved, and the wedding was celebrated joyfully.
