Grannie -- More Herstory

Sunday night we had supper with Grannie Annie. The talk over desert was interesting. In her stories of her childhood, she has often mentioned that while her father was off in the wilds of Northern Alberta, trying to homestead, her mother rented half of their house to a Jewish family. It seems that no one else in town would take them in, and when the house was sold to raise the money to immigrate to Canada, the renters were distressed because they felt they had nowhere else to go.

The sequel came out Sunday night. Grannie spent several weeks this past year visiting her sisters; she and Aunt Sue had a number of slumber parties. (The idea of two 80+ year old "girls" having a slumber party somehow amuses me!). Like all girls at slumber parties, they talked the night away. Aunt Sue related a story that took place decades ago, when she and Uncle John went together on a trip to Israel.

As they waited for their bus one day, they decided to browse in a nearby shop. They conversed in Slovak, and the shopkeeper stopped them and asked where they were from. They told her they were from Canada, and continued to look around and chat. The shopkeeper asked again, where they were from before they were from Canada, and they told her that they were from Glozan, in Yugoslavia.

The shopkeeper knew two men who had also come to Israel from Glozan. Aunt Sue knew of only one Jewish family from that town, and told the story of how her mother had rented to the Berger family.

The shopkeeper became very excited at that. It seems that when the War started, the oldest son took his youngest brother and fled to Israel. The rest of the family stayed behind, and was murdered by the Nazis. The two Berger brothers lived in the town that Uncle John and Aunt Sue were passing through.

They did not stay to meet the men; their bus arrived and they had a schedule to keep. Still, another part of the story has appeared. In some ways, it is a family link to Israel.