For Earth Below

My family, from Lodz, circa 1912, Brooklyn, New York.

I decided to post this image of my mother’s side of my family. It’s the side I am closest to. I posted this image previously on Facebook and Pbase, where it has generated quite a lot of responses.

We tend as we grow older, when friends and family have begun to pass away, to begin an exploration of our own personal histories. This picture is one, among others, that has always fascinated me. There she is, my grandmother, Rose, second from the left, circa 1912/13, when she was just about 15. There are her brothers, sisters, and her parents. My grandmother always told people she was born in 1900, but the truth is she was born in 1898. When her family came to America, she wanted to go school and learn English. She couldn’t if she was 14 or 15. So…