Tales of Our Winter Times

Lazer had a storied career. He was the youngest of three. Before being conscripted into the Russian Army like his brothers, he studied in a Yeshiva like all bright kids did. While fighting in the Russian army he was posted on the Chinese border and learned to speak Mandarin. (In all he spoke seven languages as a consequence of his wanderings.) As a soldier he was wounded in the leg. He hid in ocean waters to avoid detection, with the effect that his wound healed without infection. He walked all the way to Lithuania and freedom.

Living on handouts at synagogues in towns on the way, he settled there and met his wife Chaya. They travelled to Turkey where he made his living as a vendor of the cigarettes he made by hand. Then they went to Germany where my Bride’s mother was born. They travelled to Israel, then back to Turkey and finally resided in Berlin. From there they immigrated to Canada. In the life he built for his five children in this country, he is a hero for our times  Malke, my Bride’s mother, registered to become a nurse when she reached her fifteenth birthday. Although she reported her name as Malke, she was assigned the name Millicent by the Nuns who were her teachers.

Malke met my Bride’s father when she went to a dance in 1926, when he was visiting from work in New York. One of the men at the dance began insisting that Malke dance with him, even though she refused. My Bride’s father saw this and came over to help her. The man, perhaps twice his size, (her father was diminutive,) struck him and knocked him out cold. Malke ministered to her fallen hero. I have the strongest regret that I never met my Bride’s father, although I knew of him from a distance. He was all courage.

My Bride’s father, Chaim, was born in Poland, but grew up in Winnipeg. His father was a teacher. In High School he was a Junior Chess Champion and the Western Canadian High School Sprinting Champion. He played violin during silent movies in theatres to earn money for further education. He studied at a Jewish University in New York. He supplemented his income there by selling silk stockings from a pushcart, teaching youngsters and driving a cab. The eternal immigrant story.

After he returned to Winnipeg, with the urging of Malke, he took Law, financed by playing his music at events as part of a trio, and teaching Hebrew. He was admitted to the Bar in 1931. Six months after this event, and five years after they met, he married Malke. The groom was married wearing a borrowed suit in his bride’s home. The rest is history.