Lea Spector Kadish Hellner

I seem to remember myself since I was two years old. I remember when my brother Samuel was born, he is two years younger than I. I remember when we moved to another small town, Kopaigorod, to live with my father’s parents. My grandfather Ephraim was a Rabbi but he had many disagreements with the leading Jews in town. He decided not to be the Rabbi in town, instead he was a sales representative of Wissotzky Tea, which sent out orders all over the small towns.

My grandmother had a small store of groceries, thread, needles etc. and in this way we lived together, the four of us, my grandparents and their four daughters, the oldest one is to become my mother-in-law many years later…their three sons were already married…that is, my father and his two brothers. The youngest son, Moisheli, he slept at a cousin’s house nearby. The house consisted of three rooms. One can imagine how crowded we were, but my father was not working yet and we had not a choice.

As poor as we were, my parents dressed me very nicely. I remember when I was three years old, I wore a beautiful red blouse and a light blue skirt. When I was four years old, it was a beautiful summer morning my second brother Zalman (Solman) was born. Seeing the tiny baby, I asked where did he come from, the answer was God had brought the baby through the window…I ran out outside to see if there was a hole in the sky from where God had thrown down my little brother. Since the sun was very bright, I tried to look up and I said I could not see anything. When I ran outside, I was naked and my grandmother’s sister made me come in and get dressed. Coming in I remember watching the baby being bathed in a wooden barrel. I remember this as if it were yesterday.