Week Three
Day 11 – February 2nd
Our mother had a complicated childhood which she almost never spoke about. There are numerous boxes filled with photographs and papers which bear testimony to her troubled youth. We begin to sort them through and together with the tidbits of knowledge we have, we try to put all the clues together but there are blanks.
Our cousins are able to fill in most of them and we are grateful. They are the last of her cousins who can recall their childhood together.
Day 12 – February 3rd
We come across a number of files of correspondence our mother kept. Three of them are copies of my correspondence with her since I left South Africa in 1989. My faxes to her have long faded on the photo sensitive paper but hers to me were perfectly intact. It took me 3 fully sleepless nights to read through them all. What an emotional experience that proved to be.
Day 13 – February 4th
I have hardly been on my computer and aside from updating Shabbat candle lighting times on the website, I have done no work. I open my emails after a few days of not accessing them and amongst the correspondence are emails from users of the site who want to know why they cannot find my daily updates on the Coronavirus situation in Israel which they have been reading faithfully since February 2020. I reassure them that I will do my best to update the website.
