Zoya Schmuter, M.D. My Books
...Nothing is said now that has not been said before...Terence (185 B.C.)
From Russia with Luck ....continued

       I did not remember much about our train and boat travel.  But I vividly recall huge pots of delicious, hot soup that were brought to those very crowded trains by some good people on some stops during our long journey.  Fragrant steam was rising from these pots and the accompanying piece of bread was unbelievably tasty. I also remember people looking up to the sky in fear of German bombers.

              Finally we were in the El Al plane under the protection of the beautiful Israeli stewardesses.  There were normal people around us, laughing and talking in an absolutely unfamiliar language.  I think it was the happiest moment in my life: no worries about the past, no worries about the future.  The plane landed at Ben-Gurion Airport of Israel, and we disembarked into warm air, fragrant with the fantastic smell from “pardeses,” orange plantations.

             On August 26, 1986, I started my new job as a medical examiner for the New York Office of the Chief Medical Examiner.  Sam brought me, along with the necessary furniture, to New York in a van he borrowed at work. My family was left temporarily behind, Sam with the Ford Motor Company, Leonid with General Motors, and Gene at the U of M.  I left behind my first house with my “dream come true” rose garden, magnolia trees around the house, and the creek on the property.  I “kissed good-bye” another family member, our Doberman Gingi, who watched me leaving with his sad eyes.  And the few friends that we made during our years in Michigan were also left behind.  This was my “emigration” from the state of Michigan to the state of New York!

 

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