The life of my Great Grandmother

The oldest member of my family who I have met was my great grandmother, who died when I was about 10 years old. My great grandmother had quite a difficult life. She was born in a tiny village in Poland. Her parents where Jewish peasants living in Poland. When she was about 5 years old, her family decided to move to the United States. It was said that my great great grandfather was intelligent but not sensible. He found cheap tickets on the Trans-Siberian Railway to come to America. That trip would have been very long and difficult, especially for a family with young children. My great great grandmother, who was more sensible, decided to sell her wedding dress to buy tickets on a ship going directly to America. They came to America in the third class on a White Line Ship.

My great grandmother’s first day in school was very difficult for her. She didn’t speak any English, only Yiddish, a language spoken by eastern European Jews. She could not understand anybody at school and began to cry on the first day of school. The teacher and students didn’t know what language she was speaking but they eventually found someone who could explain things to her.

Childhood was of course quite difficult as the family didn’t have much money. Also, in 1918, there was a worldwide influenza pandemic that was very bad. Historians estimate about 25-50 thousand people died in the pandemic. My great grandmother got influenza. She survived, but lost a lot of weight and was so weak she could not walk for a week after she recovered.

As she entered adulthood her problems got worse. Just as she was starting to form a family, the Great Depression hit. The Great Depression was the worst economic period in history, and it happened just as my great grandmother was starting a family. It lasted from 1929 to 1939. My great grandmother gave birth to her first child, my grandmother, in 1931. She eventually had to raise three children during the Depression.

It was quite difficult because it was difficult for my great grandfather to find work. I don’t know all of the exact dates, but I know at one point my great grandfather saved a child from being hit by a wagon but was injured by the wagon himself. His lungs were crushed, and it made it difficult for him to breathe. Also, I know at one point he also got work with the Works Progress Administration, a US government program started in 1935 to provide jobs to Americans who were out of work due to the Great Depression.

I think her early life had a bigger impact on her than her later life. The family eventually moved to California because the warm dry air was better for my great grandfather’s lungs. Like many from the Great Depression era, she was always worried about saving money and she avoided any luxury. This was because of how difficult it was to survive during the Great Depression when there was no money and food was expensive.

Nathaniel