When I was in grade 6 in 1982, we were assigned to do a “History and Geography” research project on one of our grandparents. I chose to do mine about Romania, based on what I knew about Zaida. When I brought my notes and books to his house in Oakville during one visit, and told him all about my project and what I’d learned about Romania, much to all of our shock, he began to tell his story. I clearly remember him sitting in his big chair and starting to talk (maybe after a few drinks), and then seeing my mom walk behind the doorway leading to the kitchen and start quickly writing down some notes. After about five minutes, Thelma walked into the living room from the front foyer, holding a small tape recorder in her hand, and leaned up against the wall. Within a few seconds, Zaida looked up and saw what she was doing and immediately stopped speaking.

That was only the second, and last time he ever told his (partial) story. Before this, any information about Zaida had come from one conversation he had with Adela back in the 1960s. Once again, his story was cut short when Thelma came home, and he stopped talking. He later refused to elaborate on anything he had mentioned, and didn’t speak of it again for almost twenty years. Unfortunately, both sets of notes were misplaced, and the information on them became somewhat legendary. Recently, my mom found the original notes, and I decided to type them up to give each of the children a copy.

As it was my original project which brought this all about, I decided to do a little more work. Based on the sketchy notes, I have done a lot of research and added a few corrections, revisions and comments to my mom’s original notes to give a better idea of what he was talking about. Most significantly, I found the name and location of his town, which is important for putting his story into a geographical and cultural context. For the sake of simplicity, I’ve called Zaida “Max” throughout. This part of the story ends with his arrival in Oakville, Ontario, Canada, in 1912. This is the only authenticated story about Zaida. I hope everyone can add any new material, so we can bring the entire story from 1912-1983 together for posterity.

Warren Brown
March 2004