Bubbe's Place: Stories

The Picture Bride

“Quick, call your father! There is a letter from the Fetter (uncle) Nachum,” cried Tova.

Shlomo’s brother Nachum lived so far away that Sonya had never met him or her cousins. A letter from Fetter Nachum could mean there was a new baby, or a wedding, or there was trouble. No matter, it would be exciting. Sonya listened as carefully as a three year old could listen to a letter and its discussion.

“My daughter Lyba, by my first wife Frieda, is a strong willed and rebellious daughter. She reads about Alfred Dreyfus, and blood libels, and pogroms, and tells me that there is no life for Jews in Russia. She insists that she will go to America or Argentina! Alone! A single girl! Her stepmother and I are beside ourselves. She will not listen to reason. What can I do?”

Shlomo and Tova exclaimed, “Jacob!” Their son Jacob had been in the Russian army when the Russo-Japanese War began. When the Tzar told his soldiers to march east to Siberia, Jacob marches west to cousin Aaron Luchansky in Erie, Pennsylvania. Surely Jacob would help and watch over his cousin Lyba Gubenko. Hurriedly, they drafted a letter to Jacob, and another to Nachum and Sarah.

Things did not move smoothly. True Lyba knew no one in Argentina, but she was not about to write to a strange man and ask for his help and protection. After all, this was 1905. Jacob had to write first. He did. Jacob wrote to Lyba, and she answered. He wrote again. She sent him her picture and he fell in love with the girl in the picture. He invited her to come to America as his bride. She accepted.

Before she left for American, Lyba decided to visit her future in-laws in Koshovato.

Koshovato was a very small provincial town. Some of the streets were paved with stones, but most of the street were either dusty of muddy. Koshovato and the Gubenkos really weren’t prepared for Lyba’s arrival. She was a regular fashion plate. Her dainty shoes were useless in Koshovatos’s mud holes. Her stylish hats did not protect her from the streets’ dust or the fireplaces’ smoke. The women of Koshovato smiled at her elegant hats and drew their practical kerchiefs tighter.

But the most impressive thing about Lyba was her manners. She was so genteel, so other world to Tova and Shlomo. There were both awed and amused by her style. It pleased them to watch her rise gracefully from a chair and glide quietly across the room. The way she tilted her head and bent her little finger as she drank tea made them smile.

Lyba’s departure date drew near. Tova and Shlomo asked their daughter-in-law-to-be what they should send with her to America. They were dumb struck when bride announced that a kallah (bride) should not travel un-chaperoned to America. She insisted that they must provide an escort to keep her safe. Tova and Shlomo were stunned. Was this the same girl who planned to go alone to Argentina, America?

Poor Tova and Shlomo, what could they do? Jacob was already in America. Their son Sholke had already left on a trip to Moscow. Their eldest remaining son was David. He was a Bar Mitzvah; he was thirteen. But America was so far away. A bride should be escorted to the chupah! No one ever returned from America. There was no one else. Thirteen-year-old David would have to be the escort and protector of the bride.

Everyone cried when David Gubenko left for America.