This is the story of an unusual inheritance and the effect it had on two lives. When Rahla's father left his eccentric sister Leah to her, she came with instructions: take care of her. This legacy was the beginning of an eventful journey as Rahla's and Leah's lives began to intersect more and more. Along the way, they encountered many unexpected situations, some of which could be difficult, some frustrating and some quite funny; life was never dull. As time went on and Leah began to have life altering experiences, they discovered many things about themselves and each other that helped them overcome the many challenges they faced.

My Inheritance: Leah

By Rahla Gold

AuthorHouse

Copyright © 2012 Rahla Gold
All right reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-4685-4685-9

Chapter One

LEAH was my inheritance. One day my father, being of sound mind and not so sound body, said, "I'm leaving you my money and my sister. Take care of her." Since his money was being spent on a home care aide, I thought, I'm going to be stuck with Leah. Leah was much younger than my father and was a character. Actually, there was nobody else to take care of her and I would never abandon her.

I was 15 years old the first time I met Leah: in Hoboken, New Jersey when she arrived in this country from England. I didn't know too much about her because my father never talked about her and seldom about the rest of his family in England. I knew that she was the youngest of five children and the only girl. My father and his siblings were all about five years apart. I couldn't imagine what it must have been like to have babies over a span of 25 years. By the time Leah was born, the oldest brother was 20 and was probably no longer at home. That was all I knew about Leah. I knew a little more about my uncles, my father's brothers. My father and his brothers corresponded regularly and sometimes he shared the letters with us. My uncles sent pictures of my aunts and cousins, and they became real to me. I loved to see the airmail envelopes with the English stamps on them. My father and his brothers also sent each other newspapers. They would come rolled up in brown paper with large postmarks on them. But there was little or no mention of Leah. I felt very proud of having an English father and aunts, uncles and cousins in England.

One day a letter came from England. The news it brought caused an uproar in my house. My aunt Leah was coming to the United States and would be staying with us. This was not a visit. She was coming to this country to live. My father spent a lot of time writing letters to his brothers in England, telling them not to send Leah here. All to no avail. She was on the ship and was on her way! My father walked around the house muttering under his breath. I had rarely seen my father angry, and now he was very angry. I didn't know why he was so upset. To me, this was the most exciting thing that had happened. Since Leah was much younger than my father, I pictured a young aunt who would take me places. I would show her around and we would have fun together. She represented freedom for me. We lived in Brooklyn, New York and my mother was very overprotective. I was not allowed to travel into Manhattan by myself or even with friends. My friend Eleanor had a young aunt who took her to shows and movies. I thought that once Leah came we could go out together and go to Times Square or Greenwich Village. A school friend of mine who had returned to England to see her family, had visited my father's family and met Leah. She told me I looked just like her. I could hardly wait to meet this new aunt!

My mother, in the mean time, was trying to calm my father and to figure out where we would put Leah in our small apartment. Then she became very busy moving furniture around. This was not unusual for my mother. She loved to rearrange things and now she had a wonderful excuse to do so. We used to move every year, but since we settled down in this apartment, my mother regularly changed the rooms around. My father worked from late afternoon until midnight. When she moved the furniture she always had to leave him a note to warn him so he would not trip over something unexpected. Now she was having a good time. I realized that she didn't mind Leah's coming at all. Maybe it made life interesting for her, too. I had been sleeping in the living room. She decided that that room would become a bedroom for Leah and me, and her bedroom would become the living room and she and my father would sleep there. The two rooms were next to each other so it really didn't matter which one functioned as the living room. My brother was unaffected by all these changes. He had his own small bedroom down the hall. Not only didn't I mind, but I was thrilled to be sharing a room with my aunt. I couldn't wait to meet her.

Finally we went to the pier at Hoboken to meet Leah. It was a misty spring morning and the air was heavy with rain. We were all dressed up. My father, a tall good-looking man, wore his gray suit. My mother, a nice looking woman of medium height, wore her grey spring coat and a hat and gloves. I wore my navy blue spring coat. My brother, a skinny sickly looking boy wore his best pants and a blazer. We took two trains to get there and finally we were a big building, open on one side. I was disappointed. I thought we would be on an open pier with a big ship looming over us, just like in the movies. Instead we were in this cavernous building. The ship was on the open side, but you couldn't see it. All you could see were the gangways, and the people leaving the ship. The pier was crowded with people waiting to meet the passengers. We all had to stand behind a low railing. On the other side of the railing, people were standing near piles of luggage; stevedores and customs officials were milling about. Everyone on our side of the railing was straining to find the people they had come to meet. We managed to get a place near the railing but it didn't make too much difference to my mother, my brother and me. Only my father knew what Leah looked like and he hadn't seen her in 17 years. I kept looking at all the people wondering which one was my aunt. Suddenly we heard a shrill voice shrieking, "Ephraim, Ephraim Here I am!" There she was, pointing and jabbing her finger in the air. I saw my father shudder when he heard her call out. He said something under his breath about her childishness. It was obvious she embarrassed him. Apparently there were things about Leah he hadn't told us. I took one look at Leah and felt very upset. I was close to tears. I saw a short dowdy woman in a tweed suit. She had her hair pulled back and had beady brown eyes. Her front teeth were big, and seemed to protrude from her mouth. This wasn't the aunt I pictured. I don't look like that, I thought, I don't. I knew I wasn't pretty, but I didn't think I looked like that. Oh, and I'm going to share my room with her! Leah pushed her way through the crowd of people and came over to the railing to meet us. She was smiling broadly and was waving to us. She spoke quickly and had a thick English accent. Then she ran back to her luggage and waited until the customs man had checked everything and she was free to go.

When Leah joined us, I watched as my mother kissed her and asked about her trip. My father was all business. "All right then, let's go." he said as he took her two suitcases. We all followed him as he started to walk towards the exit. To exit the building, we had to walk down a long hallway lined with different types of stands. All of a sudden, Leah stopped short in front of a fruit stand. She just stared. Finally she said, "Banahnas, banahnas, are they really banahnas?" "Yes they are." my father said impatiently. "Would you like one?" my mother asked. "No" said Leah, "I just haven't seen so much fruit in a long time." On the way home, my mother explained to us that since Leah had been in England during the war, she hadn't had any fruit and even now, a few years later, there was still a shortage of fruit and other foods.

I had further proof of the effect of Leah's wartime experiences that night. We had gotten into bed and I was barely asleep when an ambulance went by, its sirens blaring. Suddenly, Leah jumped up and was about to get under the bed, when I told her it was just an ambulance siren....