Ruth Federman - February 13, 2008
Writing II
She told me she has a grandmother, you know, there, there is a time when many German people have a--have somebody Jewish in them. I don't know if it's true or not true, yes? But maybe it's--she said, "Yes, I had a grandmother who was Jewish." I said, "Okay." So I told her I came to Israel when I was 13 and so on and so on. "Why don't you write uh, write it down, everything?" I said, "I don't know to write. It's not my, uh, I really don't--also, I don't write German perfect." The best I write is German, I don't know why. I never learned really German. Czech, I forgot. Uh, English bad. I write English but uh, I must always look in the dictionary. French, I learned, I understand but I don't write. Hebrew, out, very bad. So, so she said, "Look, whatever you remember, make a little note--always what you remember." Okay, I started to make little notes. Then, during the summer--we are always three months at the Arcadia Hotel, which is in ???. It's a very nice hotel. We have a certain--no, I now, not we uh, suit uh, suite, yes? Living room, there's bedroom. Beautiful on--I see the sea. And my husband then still worked. He went to the office and I started to write and it German. It came out me, out of me like--I don't know where I remember things because there are things from 4 year--when I was 4 years old and I wrote it. And I wrote there I'm married, I'm married and I have two children--finished. And I gave it to read to somebody here--a Czech. She's a journalist here in Hebrew, yes, but she's also from Prague. I gave it to read to her. I said excuse me ???, German, because she really went to German--many went to German schools, the Jewish children in Prague which my mother didn't like. And she said to me, "Listen, you have a very interesting life after you married. Why don't you continue?" And so I really continue and it's very interesting because I had a terrific life. Not many women have a life like I, I had.
Well, your English is terrific.
No, no.
Um...
Look, I have a problem, yes? I'm 82 years old. And the problem is that the Hebrew--I, I spoke with the children only Hebrew but I really didn't learn it properly and in Hebrew I am lost now. In the middle of the sentence, I can't continue because the most basic word is missing. This is something which happen to me lately.
Happens to me, too.
No.
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