Inscription

The inscription on the inside flap 
Of a small, leather bound copy
Of ‘Pride and Prejudice’,
Published by Thomas Nelson and Sons,
London, Edinburgh, and New York reads:

Nov. 28, 1937

To Esther

In appreciation of your many kind actions, and deeds.

With much love,
Your friend,
Anne Stein

“Happy Holiday”

The paper is high quality, still today
Unaged and bright white,
The print perfectly legible,
Almost ninety years later.

Anne Stein, when I met her, 
Had faded red hair, a high pitched
Voice, and thick, thick glasses.
I was five; she stood not too much taller.

She had been, I think I remember,
A cottage mother or some sort
Of caretaker, at the orphanage
To which my grandmother sent

My mother and her older brother 
In 1936, when my grandmother realized
Her own demise was forthcoming.
My mother was thirteen, my uncle Max

Sixteen, but my grandmother lied about
His age, to gain him a year
In the Hebrew Guardian Sheltering Society
Home in Pleasantville, New York.

He was slight enough to pass for younger,
But he did not like the place.
My mother loved it.  She told me it 
Was the best thing that happened

In her youth: she finally finished a school year
In a single school.  And she made friends,
Anne Stein among them, who later organized
In Los Angeles alumni and employee

Gatherings, which my mother took me to,
Where I met Annie, as I called her, and 
Her husband Ziggy, a late marriage I suppose,
No children, him tall, her short,

Him quiet, her verbose, him shy,
Genial, inarticulate due perhaps to his
Stutter, stammer, lisp and hair lip, but
A sweet smile that always felt warm.

I think Annie and Ziggy might have thought
Of my sibs and me as their surrogate 
Grandchildren.  Annie loved my
Mother. To protect us from the harsh realities,

My mother never mentioned Annie’s death.
But when I was young, the visits stopped. 
Although Pleasantville alumni crowded 
Our family life until my mother’s demise,

Upon which I inherited some of the various
Sentimental items my sibs did not want
That sat on a shelf above her desk:
Photos, knick-knacks, travel souvenirs,

And a 1930’s edition of ‘Pride and Prejudice’.
My mother and I talked reading, alot, but
History, politics, journalism, Israel, Judaism.  I do not
Recall her ever mentioning “Pride and Prejudice”

Nor did I notice the book, as it is quite small,
Until afterwards.
Although it had become a favorite of mine.
I re-read it regularly, savoring the language

And wondering, along with Tom Hanks,
If Miss Bennet will ever marry Mr Darcy.
This edition has two black and white illustrations,
A frontispiece of Jane Austen

And the other of  Bingley and Jane Dancing Together.
The pages are unworn, no dog-ears,
My mother was not general disposed
To fiction, for she was a practical woman.

But she kept this book all the years
Of her life, and only now, looking 
At the date, for her family was 
Rigorously anti-religious,

Her mother an anarchist and the
Step-father a communist.  I think
That this might have been the
First Hanukah gift
She ever received.

From my mouth to 
God’s ear, please pass on
The message:
Thank you, Annie.
It was a gift that mattered.

(November 28 1937 was the first night of Hanukah.)