Kholmech

Kholmech Sign and Book of Letters
Postscript
 
  Here is what happened, according to Jerry Schechter.
 
Shortly after WWII ended, my father's first cousin Louis Shearn--the Label  and Lufka Chernyak of the letters--went to the Soviet Union to find his sister. He located her in a small apartment in Moscow. Living with her was a sister of Grandma Bessie's, who was already over 60 years of age (Sonya or Hanna?).
 
Upon his return to the United States, Louis Shearn informed my grandmother that he had found one of her sisters. Immediately, Grandma Bessie wrote to her, but received no reply. Bessie then wrote to Louis Shearn's sister to make further inquiry.

After many months, a letter finally arrived from the sister. She told Grandma that she was old now and living in great poverty. Her husband and children had been killed in the war. She was fortunate, she said, to have a small government pension that helped her to survive. She told Grandma that she feared that any further letters from America might jeopardize her pension. Given that fact, as well as the reality that they had not been in touch for so many years, it would be best, the sister suggested, that they "just let it go."

And that is how it ended.

 

Title Pages, Dedication, Frontispiece
Preface, Introduction, Poem
Letters: Early years
Letters: Middle years
Letters: Later years
Postscript