Many random thoughts this Mother's Day: According to statistics, 750,000 children a year are born to immigrant women. I am sure these mothers have many hopes and dreams for their little ones as they start growing up in America.
Switching gears: I think of my two daughters, Leah and Haley, who have only known one grandparent, my mother, Esther, who was born in Poland and survived the Holocaust by working as an errand girl under a false identity. I wonder what effect and influence she had had on them because we are all "products" of our famlies in one way or another. When Haley visited a concentration camp in Poland and went to Yad Vashem, (the Holocaust Museum,) in Israel, she cried some sadder and deeper tears than her friends because she has witnessed her grandmother's pain and knows of our family's suffering and murders. Both girls have joined me in Holocaust commemoration ceremonies and we have lit memory candles, cried tears and held hands together.
Children of immigrants, grandchildren of immigrants....the family tree branches grow in many directions. All cannot survive without the roots and the trunk - the solid foundation of the beginning and continuation of life.
Blessings to mothers and children on this special day and gratitude for those who came to the United States to start anew!
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