In June 1975 I was unable to accompany my parents and brother on
a visit to Grandma Mathilda in Los Angeles, because I’d gotten a
summer job as busboy at a Kansas City dinner theater—from which
I would be fired after two weeks of ineptitude. On
July 22nd Mathilda wrote me a letter of consolation:
Too bad you are unemployed again, but we have to be thankful for
the short time they gave you now. This work sounds quite hard
and messy too. So you learned something at least, to keep clear
of busboy’s jobs in the future. Paul dear, you do remind me
more and more of your Dad when he was getting a first summer job
too. He was a lot younger than you now, and he had to work and
not for experience, but for food to have for all of us in the
summer.
I am sure you heard about this before from your Dad and from me
too… I am very glad to know your good spirit has not changed
during work. School will start soon and all this will be
forgotten,
except the experience…
Mathilda must have begun to suspect that the Ehrlich Family
History which I’d undertaken to compile a year earlier was now
an All This Has Been Forgotten (Except the Experience). And
after she’d gone to the trouble of re-translating the American
half of
Martha’s Diary:
1974 August 25.
Dear Paul, I’d been to Martha’s and had a very nice time with
them too. I brought her diary home with me, but decided to copy
it for you, instead of sending the book as it is. I think if I
start writing it out again I am sure things will come back to my
mind and probably could tell you more this way than just sending
it as is. It will take a lot longer that’s for sure. But I am
sure you wouldn’t mind if I could remember things way back
when? And tell it to you as it comes up… Now I am back home
and try to take it easier and no more traveling
for a while, but do some work for a change. Wishing you
good luck Paul dear when school starts. Much love to you all.
Grandma E.
1974 September.
Dearest Paul, I am hoping you can read and understand what I am
writing to you in these pages. From now on I’ll try to follow
Martha’s Diary as close as I [can] for you to understand it?
Translating might not be as you’d like, but if you want to ask
some questions after you see it’s hard for you to understand
some of the things, just write to me and ask it, OK? I also
appreciate if you’d let me know whether I should continue with
it or you’d rather wait until you have more time for writing.
I’ll send the installments little by little as I finish a few
chapters if you like. These’ll be all for a little while, as I
have other things too I must do… Paul, if the pencil written
copies [are] hard to read, or even my spelling, please don’t
hesitate to say so. I’ll try to use the pen, even if I have to
cross out words, instead of erase them? You know translating
from Hungarian to English [is] not so easy for anyone.
Especially for me. But if you think I should I’ll do it
which way is better for you…
1974 October 8.
Dear Paul, I love to get letters from you, and like to think you
really enjoy my installments? But as long as you don’t start it
until you get more of it, or all of it? I am very glad for
that, because I won’t feel rushed to do it so fast, but could
take a lot more time to translate it more up to the point. I am
surprised at myself when I read some earlier translations I did
a long time ago, and see the spelling mistakes I made then.
Now, I have to correct that too, besides translate them, so you
at least could figure it out what I am trying to say in these
now… So as you can see I still have quite a lot to translate
and write for you to read and select whatever you want to use
out of it. But I don’t mind, dear, just be patient with me,
OK[?]… Here’s something to read. Hope it interests you too.
Isn’t it
something? Much love to you and family too. Grandma.
Regrettably, it was me with whom Mathilda had to be patient. In
my own defense it might be noted that I’d just started my first
semester of college at UMKC; yet as time went by I could at
least have typed up the Diary’s re-translation, particularly
after I bought an electric typewriter in 1976. That same year
Mathilda composed and sent me a mini-family-history
of her own, stlll trying to prime the pump:
1976 August.
Paul dear, I am hoping you could connect all these things with
the rest of it?… Martha helped while here to remind me of
these things to add to the biography. When I’ll see you at
Christmastime we could probably remember more and you could
correct my spelling and mistakes. It’s 2 A.M. now and I
must go to bed although I am not
sleepy, only a bit tired. It’s high time to let you see it now…
But I failed to take the bait, and the Ehrlich Family History
lay fallow for another seven years. As they rolled past and
Mathilda’s health deteriorated, she often asked me for “a nice
and funny story… You’ll choose some happier subjects for a
change?… Thanks for not finishing sadly. Somehow lately
especially, I can’t stand to read or watch on TV sad stories… I
thank you here on this paper, and imagine I had kissed your
forehead OK?”
I finally earned this kiss in February 1984 with the rush-job
production of An Honest Tale Plainly Told, plus my plans
to visit California that summer. In March my father reported
that Grandma was very pleased with the first and looked forward
to seeing me (without my beard) during the second. At the
Lancaster Convalescent Hospital in July she introduced me (still
bearded) to her nurses, all of whom had heard about myself and
The Book.
In September Grandma was said to be “ecstatic” with the
typed-up-at-long-last Diary as Volume II of An Honest Tale;
and after Volume IV came out to conclude the
saga, I received two valedictory letters from Grandma herself:
1985 September 3.
Dearest Paul! It was so wonderful to see your Dad, and
have him for a couple of days here with me. But it was the
Birthday gift you sent me that made me happiest and proudest of
all. I showed it to [every] one of my friends… I
really love it and I’m reading it until I finish it all.
Sorry I can’t send you a longer letter, I’ll try again soon.
With all my love lovingly Grandma E.
1985 October 28.
Dear Paul! Your last letter didn’t make me sad, it made me
laugh out loud, it struck me funny instead. It brought me back
lots of things I forgotten a long time, it kind of made me
remember? The Cholent,
I used to make them in all my life here in the U.S.A. and baked
in the Oven for several hours. Delicious, I loved to eat it,
even warmed over. I still don’t remember Kolozsvár just even
though you describe it well. Just some of the parts, but can’t
visualize it… I don’t have good pen to write with, hope you can
read and understand it? I’m always happy to [hear] from you.
Your loving
Grandma Ehrlich.
I saw her again in May 1986, when she was in poor shape but
enjoyed hearing me describe the novel Csardas; and once
more in July 1987 when she’d staged a renaissance and was in
fine fettle, being very particular about how her new wig was
dressed by Sherry Renée and which earrings should be worn with
it.
All the accoutrements of a lady, from start to finish.
Notes
