Past Times

Wednesday, May 23, 2007

In other news, Dad had registered to complete his MBA through Lindenwood University. And OLeif had spoken with the oldest Yuletide about his upcoming missions trip to Johannesburg, South Africa. Everyone was going to new and interesting places, doing things, working on big goals.

Meanwhile, things were cooking at work for OLeif. His relatively new pal, Shophar, was leaving NAWS that Friday. The poor fellow’s dad (who had been his best friend) had passed away, he and his wife were still recovering from whiplash and mangled knees after a somewhat serious automobile accident shortly after his dad died, and he was doing his best to raise and support his five daughters. Somewhat like Tevye. But Shophar couldn’t continue driving the several hours it took to get to work every morning. So he was obliged to leave. This also meant extra work for OLeif, longer days.

Collette was reminded that day of a good number of years ago – she couldn’t remember how old she was at the time or what season of the year it had been. Grandma Combs and Mom had taken them to a Jewish shop somewhere down in the city. Among the goodies, they had found a scroll of the Old Testament written in Hebrew and a dradle, which they put in their Sunday box. The Sunday box was a large red treasure chest-shaped tub whose contents were only allowed to be played with on Sunday afternoons.

But Collette’s favorite purchase at the little shop had been given to her by Grandma – a necklace. A simple chain with a silver pendant attached in the middle which read her name in Hebrew. The little elderly Jewish man who ran the shop, told her that her name was already a Hebrew name, which she thought was rather interesting, thinking all along that it had been purely Latin. She had worn the necklace often over the years. Although somewhere along the line it had disappeared, most likely into one of her many boxes or stashes of forgotten things in Mom’s and Dad’s basement.

Then there had been the Jewish seder they had attended once, long ago, with the Englishs. It had been hosted by a Christian Jewess. She introduced them to the matzah, the candles, dipping their fingers in the wine, the bitter green herbs (which Collette could not even pretend to enjoy)… Collette remembered at the end of the meal that the Jewess spoke to the moms about her family. When she had become a Christian, they rejected her; they had no contact with her. She had cried as she talked to them about it.

That evening, OLeif was called away to “Mall Madness”. Collette recalled the last time the junior high youth had been on a scavenger hunt at the mall. She and OLeif had both led separate teams from store to store, bunches of cackling, giggling, oh-my-gosh middle school girls and crazy middle school boys. But OLeif seemed to handle the nonsense well, often partaking of it himself when necessary.

Collette and Puck enjoyed their quiet day at home and napped together on the couch in the late afternoon. Every once in awhile, the tiredness caught up with Collette. This was soon remedied by a few hours of shut-eye at a time.

The evening was quiet and blue.