The Dalfen family went through periods of dire poverty in Romania. To earn extra money, my mother [Aunty Clara] , then 12 years old, hired herself out as a smuggler, smuggling leather goods to Radautz.
Mama was very small in stature, not unlike the Dalfen family trait, and she was also quite scrawny. The dealer would wrap leather skins around her body, securing them with twine. On top of that would go her overcoat and in this manner she'd cross the border to deliver her goods. This went on successfully for a number of times until one customs officer became suspicious of the kid with a fat body and a skinny face crossing the border so often.
He stopped her and caught her red-handed. Mama started to cry and begged him not to take her goods because then she would not be paid her few pennies and her family would not be able to buy bread and would starve.
The customs officer may have had pity on her but also had another reason to let her go. Mama, continuing on her way to make her delivery, noticed that she was being followed... apparently the customs people preferred to catch the dealer to the small fry... and since Mama figured that if her handlers were caught she wouldn't get paid, she eluded her followers by going in and out of stores and restaurants on the main street and finally exiting the back door of one of them.
She made her delivery as scheduled , was paid and that was the end of her smuggling career. Another of mama's sisters was her partner in the smuggling business... Aunty Regina
Because times were so hard, Mama also hired herself out as a maid to distant relatives who were quite wealthy. The verbal agreement was that Mama would work for 6 months in return for room and board and when the lady's son would return from Czernovitz and bring dress material for his mother, she would give Mama a piece of the material to sew up a dress for herself. This was a big deal for Mama because she had never had a new dress... her hand-me-downs had usually gone thru 4-5 lifetimes before they got to her.
The work consisted of dusting, sweeping, making the beds, helping with the cooking and doing the dishes, and doing the wash on a scrubboard (what?--no washing machine?). She would have to heat up the water, scrub the clothes , wring them out and hang them up to dry and then do the ironing. And each day she would have to drag out the rugs, scrawny kid that she was,and beat them with a special stick to remove the dust and then drag them back in. But to her it was all worth it because after 6 months, she would have her dress.
Well, the son finally came home and brought 10 pieces of material. His mother examined them all and decided that she had to keep them all for herself and she made Mama another offer---stay and work another 6 months after which she would get TWO pieces of material. Imagine the dejection of that poor 12 year old girl! She quit..... and never did get her material. The story does not end there.
Fast forward 50 years. Mama and Daddy are living in Canada and B"H are not poor--not rich but not poor! Mama and her siblings send parcels regularly to the survivors in Europe and Israel. She gets a letter from the son (his mother had passed away already) saying that they are somewhat related to her, that they had arrived in Israel and needed a refrigerator and a washing machine. Mama approached some relatives who were more closely related to that family and asked them to contribute to the cause. One of them began to shake and cry and related that she had been cheated of her wages by that family (just as Mama had been) and no way was she going to help them now. Well, Mama convinced her to give something --- telling her "Dos raidl drait zich--Ich vill nisht az ess zoll zich azoi gich drayen " (the wheel turns--I don't want it to turn so quickly). Mama's siblings added their bit and the appliances were ordered and sent by boat.
In the meantime, I (Menue) was leaving on a trip to Israel with my friend Murray Marmor and my mother asked me to buy 2 cartons of cigarettes and a bottle of whisky to give the son and his wife--she remembered that he smoked and that he liked a little shot in the morning. They were living in a new and not fully finished development for new immigrants... unpaved roads and no street signs but we finally found the couple, introduced ourselves, gave them the duty free stuff and told them their fridge and washer were scheduled to arrive in 3 weeks. Their apartment was sparsely furnished--- they were an elderly couple, timid and lonely and living in a strange new land. He cried. He wanted to talk. He asked me to do him a big favor. Could I come back tomorrow during daylight hours? I asked why? He answered that his neighbours and the street workmen think he is talking thru his hat when he says that he's getting a fridge and washer from America and he wants to prove it was true (and raise his stature in the community). It was a 2 hour trip but Murray and I did return the next day. The man asked us to walk outside with him and as we did, he introduced us to everyone surrounding us (we must have looked like 2 cool dudes) and told them we were relatives from America, and that the fridge and washer would arrive in 3 weeks. He also told them that we were the first of his many relatives to visit and that many more would come. His stature in the neighbourhood really rose that day...he was no longer the senile wishful-thinking old man anymore. He DID have important relatives.
If I have to say so myself--the return visit to this old couple was as much a mitzva as the sending of the goods.
