Esther Posner - March 11, 1986
Hiding at a Widow's Store
Okay, I think we're at the point where I was at the uh, where was I? At this family in--Talsma, the school principal. And my parents were with a widow whose name was Mrs. ???. She had a little grocery. Oh, I know what a talking--I said that, it see...it seemed to me that the two families that I was with were quite prosperous. That they, they just--they, they lived in very nice homes, and--for example, the Talsma family had a very large piano and everybody played the piano and we did a lot of singing around the piano and that kind of thing. Um, and when Christmas came, you know, everyone--there were gifts and their home was very nicely decorated and uh, you know, I'm sure that they had financial problems because of the war, but it just seemed fairly prosperous to me. But this family where my, my parents stayed, she was a very poor woman. She was a widow and she lived in a little house. First you walked down a couple of steps and you were in the front of her house, which was a little grocery store. And she just sat there in the morning, all day long, in her grocery store and took care of the customers. And then when we walked up a couple of flights, behind the store, you were in her apartment and that's where my parents were. And every Sunday I was taken to visit my parents. And the people from the underground told me--they took me on Sunday morning--took me to visit my parents, and then I'd go back. Uh, "Don't tell your parents your address. It's dangerous because if anything, you know, if anything were to happen to you or to them, it's just safer if they don't know your address, if they don't know where to find you." And I agreed and I understood. And uh, I visited my parents and my mother asked me where I was staying and I wouldn't tell her. And, you know, now that I look back, I mean as a mother, you know, not knowing where your child is staying and even your child won't tell you where she's staying. And this went on for a couple of weeks and finally she, she pulled me aside, she said, "You have to tell me where you are, I mean, you're my child, I have to know where you are," and I gave her my address. But for about a month I didn't tell her.
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