I never met my great-grandfather, but I have heard many stories -  his extravagant New Year’s parties, his extra rough hand squeezes, the time my uncle fell out of his car, the hours he spent re-learning to write after having a stroke, and, most famously, the romantic telegrams he sent to my great-grandmother, Nanny Claire, while they were dating. 
My great-grandfather fled anti-Jewish pogroms in Eketrinaslav, Russia, a place no longer on the map. He met my great-grandmother in Montreal, where her family had ended up after immigrating from Bucharest, Romania. While they were dating, Sam moved to Los Angeles, courting Claire via telegrams he sent back to Montreal. Eventually, Sam drove from LA to Montreal to marry my great-grandmother and the two of them returned together to LA. Sam must have sent this telegram, dated May 21st, 1932, on his first overnight stop in Reno, Nevada “500 miles traveled and 2,800 still to go” on his way to get married or, as he writes in another telegram, to begin their “lifelong honeymoon.”
The long-distance love story between my great-grandmother and great-grandfather reminds me of all of the places my family and ancestors have made home and community, across time and space. My great-grandparents generation was the last in my family to know firsthand the world of yiddishland, the challenging yet vibrant life of the Jewish street, that I strive to preserve in memory and tradition.

– Zoe Kupetz

Relationship:  Great-grandchild of im/migrant or more Great-grandchild of im/migrant or more