Arrival in the United States

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"Then [Ruth and Hildegard] went through Vermont, and they got all the stamps-- they had all of the immigration papers.

Then they eventually went to New York where my Aunt Edie was living temporarily, because she had met my Uncle Ruby who was a musician in the U.S.O. And she had gone to a dance, once, in Rockford, Illinois. And she was a beautiful woman, with blonde hair and blue eyes. And he saw this woman, and he didn’t have to play that night, so he asked her to dance, and he fell in love with her almost immediately. And he was from Brooklyn, New York, but he was in the Army, so he went overseas, and he actually saw my Aunt Hiddie and my mother at one point. He’d already become engaged to Aunt Edie, but, you know, he brought them stockings, and some of his rations, and they liked him immediately, of course.

But they were met in New York by Aunt Edie, and her soon-to-be mother-in-law Mrs. Babitch. And Mrs. Babitch was from Russia. She had immigrated herself some years prior to that with her sisters, and they owned a coat factory. So she made sure that the girls-- my mother and her sister-- had coats, and purses, and she gave them home-cooked meals, and was very gracious to them."