Sonia Nothman - January 4, 1983
Immigration to America
When you got here to this country, did you come right to Michigan?
No, New York. They--I came--we flew twenty-four hours. We stopped ??? And then I came to New York. My sister was supposed to wait for me because uh, my baby wasn't even seven weeks then. And you know, I have a formula and it--the bottle broke and everything. So they told him from my sister, if I came--I'll come a day later. And they didn't wait for me. So they--from the airport in New York, it took us two hours for us to go to a station. New York. And the baby didn't eat nothing or drink nothing for a whole day. And so, they were--they're very nice to, a man from Jewish organization. So I give her the bottle. What did I know. But she wouldn't eat bottled milk. What did I know. And I give the baby--I know all the time. And she threw up. This kid didn't eat from seven in the morning to seven at night. And I thought she wouldn't be alive. She wouldn't. And they give us a nice room at a hotel. And there were two women there in the hotel. I don't know what...They saw me with a baby--nothing, seven weeks. When they saw me they start crying. I said, "Why are you crying?" They asked me, 'You don't have nobody?" I tell you, the following day they came in with two boxes of clothes. And I said, "What, brand new clothes." There was another woman with two boys. I shared with. I didn't need that much. And they brought me everything for the baby. And I stayed there. My sister came right away the following--the same evening and took me back to her house. And she came maybe a year or so, two years before. She lived there in New York. It's, uh...She was fixed up already because she have a family. And I stayed there. And then I rented there, not far from her room. My husband went to work in New York. Oh, he made odd jobs, all kinds of jobs. And I had a sister here, my younger sister who was married. They brought her family here so she came to New York and my brother came.
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