Romance about Immigration

responsibility to raise an adopted child. Because the class has practically all these examples live, the children understand and questions discussed at home are meaningful. Albums are taken out, photographs and family trees are perused.

- This one here is you as a baby.

- And who is this old woman next to you?

- This is your great-grandmother, the mother of your grandfather.

- Where is my grandfather? Why is he not in the picture?

- He had already died when you were born.

- How has he died if his mother was alive? And where is his dad?

- Here is his dad on this photo with his uncle.

- Oh, he looks like the portrait in the living room.

- Of course he looks like, the one on the protrait above the fireplace is your grandfather's grandfather, their father.

- Wow! So I have a great-great-grandfather?

- Everyone has great-great-grandparents, this is Daddy’s grandfather with his dad and brother, your uncle!

- Show me more, who is this one here?

- Well, this is my grandmother's uncle, I knew him.

- He must have been very old.

- No, he was not, he had been born while his brother had been at a war, do you remember those medals - they are his. They belong to the dad of your great-grandmother, my mother's mother.

- You remember them, all of them? Ha, the bell, this is for me! Can I go play?

The question about remembrance remains unanswered. I really do still remember them. But I am the last to remember them here. Perhaps the last at all. Maybe I do not remember them all. Surely one day I will not remember them anymore. I take out a pencil and start writing on the photos’ back sides. "Aunt Minka and uncle Tancho’s wedding, best man and matron of honour Genkov family." "Grandma Genka and grandma Stoyka in front of the old house," "Uncle Peyo Atanasov, at Dad’s baptism," "Grandfather Christo and his son before departure to the war fronts," "Cousin Gosho’s mom"," Grandpa Stavry, grandfather to Boris and Svetlio”. Some memory will remain somehow. "The book of the generation of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham. Abraham begat Isaac; Isaac begat Jacob; Jacob begat Judas and his brethren; Judas begat Phares and Zerah of Tamar; and Perez begat Hezron; and Hezron begat Ram…".

The Italian neighborhood, the Six Vassilises and the Seventh Son

 

In Montreal there is Greco-Italian neighborhood where one can comfortably chat in Greek and/or Italian with the elderly people in the small restorants and cafes. As a colleague of mine from this district says, I'm functionally semi-literate in both official languages, but Greek and Italian are my native ones. The young man is playing modest, of course, but one or another relative, friend and neighbor have left a lasting imprint on him. There the doors are still being opened for the ladies, the young men go up the stairs first making path, and this is done as na