Hanna Ramras - January 26, 2008
Moving to Brazil
How did you meet your husband?
In the B'nai Akiva--in the Zionist organization.
I see. In Brazil?
Brazil? Brazil was where we were destined to go to for a reason too. First, my husband proposed to me in England and I said, "No, I'm not ready for marriage, not to anyone. I'm still very confused." I don't think he even realized what kind of a past I had--only much later. And uh, I wasn't ready to marry anyone. I couldn't have made anyone very happy. I had to sort myself out. And uh, he had lost his father. He lost his mother very early when he was seven years old and his father died when he was eighteen. He had two sisters, one in Brazil and one was a GI bride. Both of the sisters married cousins--two brothers--one of them went to Brazil--one of the brothers in the early 1930s, yes? And he wanted this girl--he wanted his eldest sister and he wrote to his uncle--his father--and he said he's asking his hand--for his daughter's hand and the father agreed. She went to Brazil on her own and left her father, her sister--her younger sister--and my husband. Later on during the war yet, the other brother had come to America illegally. When the war broke out he joined the Armed Forces and he went with a bridge building uh, what was it?
Husband: Engineering corp.
Engineering corp., uh-huh. They were the ones that build the pontoon bridges and he asked his uncle because the father had passed away that he wanted to marry Esther, his sister and that's--after the war she went to America as a GI bride.
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