Dear readers,
Please take a look at a delightful new children’s book published by my adopted sister, Rabbi Galina Trefil. In short, this book teaches kids that it’s ok to be different and that in fact, being different is beautiful! I will be reviewing it later this month!
Filed under Future Reviews, Reblogs
Just a quicky Hi to you guys! I am so honored that so many of you are still sticking with me even though I’ve been on a bit of a radio silence for a while.I want you to know that I am doing better and although I miss my mom every moment, I am learning to move forward. I am starting to read again at my usual pace and have actually a book in mind that was given to me during my mourning that I would love to comment on here. Alice Hoffman does wonderful nonfiction, you guys!
Anyway, I will be back soon, hopefully after this weekend’s birthday celebration. That would be my own, and I think I might be ready to celebrate myself even though I feel rather wistful at the same time.
Love,
Eugenia
Filed under Personal Reflections
One month ago, my mommy had gotten diagnosed with diffused large b cell lymphoma. Two weeks ago, she began her first chemo cycle. Thirty eight hours ago my beloved mommy passed away. She handled chemo like a trouper, didn’t complain or ask for anything. For several days after chemo ended, she felt fine. Then the fatigue set in and things unraveled from there. On Tuesday she ended up in the ER and eventually ICU as everything got worse. On Friday, early in the morning despite putting up an insanely hard fight given how sick she became, my mother went back to her first family: her mother, father and older sister.
You may ask me how I can write right now. With a great amount of difficulty but full clarity of mind. I am the younger of two, and the daughter and I don’t think I grasped even the millimeter of how much I love my mother until now, how close I was with her. This blog is important to me and I feel like I’ve bonded with you all to the point where I can share my real life with you. My mom is (and I think I am going to be saying is for a long time) a very private, old fashioned person, I don’t think she understood what a blog really was and I seem to recall her pretty much rolling her eyes at me when I told her about it. But she cared about what made me happy and having this outlet makes me happy. She had the same attitude towards Facebook.
She instilled the love of reading and books in me which led me to this blog in the first place. As many kids, I didn’t share myself fully with mom and though I know she was often hurt by it, she understood. She raised me to be loyal and independent, stubborn and private like she was. I wasn’t always the easiest daughter but I know she always knew how much I loved her and how much she meant to me. On her last day, I started reading to her from a book she shared with me as a child, a book we both read as kids. And I know she was happy to hear me read to her, maybe she thought it was cheesy but I know she heard me and it comforts me that we could share this even when she was asleep.
I love you мама. 
Filed under Personal Reflections
How have your political views changed over time?
I would say as I became more educated and exposed to the world as I grew up, my political views grew and opened up. At this point of my life in my 40s, I’m definitely very much on the liberal side but I wouldn’t call myself “woke” and am not a fan of the term for my own reasons: I don’t like to assume a banner of liberalism and whatnot but prefer to actually reach and EDUCATE myself.
Filed under Personal Reflections
Why do you blog?
I guess when I have time to do it, which is NOT often, it’s to feel like myself, the person before the mom, the wife, and the employee.
What’s your favorite time of day?
In the mornings when my kiddos are first awake or at their bedtime and are in a cuddly mood.
Filed under Jewish topics for perusal and learning
Who are your favorite people to be around?
My boys especially my little one because he loves to hug and cuddle. And I’m a sucker for kiddo cuddles.
Filed under Fun stuff!
What is the greatest gift someone could give you?
Right now it’s the gift of time free of any chores and responsibilities. I am a mom of two with a full time job load so my free/me time is incredibly limited.
Filed under Fun stuff!
Here is the list of the 54 books that I posted on JewishBookWorld.org in October 2023. The image contains some of the covers. The bold links take you…
The 54 books posted on JewishBookWorld.org in October 2023
Who is your favorite historical figure?
My favorite figure, more so because I’m super curious about the entirety of her background and story is Roxelana. She was the first official wife, meaning one married in an official marriage to an Ottoman sultan, something highly unusual in the culture of harems and and multiple concubines. While her actual background is not confirmed, I like to agree with the historians who believe she came from what is now Ukraine.
Learn more about her here:
Filed under Uncategorized
What notable things happened today?
Today marks 8 years since my mom entered the SF General ER to never emerge from that hospital alive. I do my best to give today and the next 3 days until the day of her passing as little thought as possible.
Before I had kids, I kept myself busy with self care or fun distractions to keep my mind elsewhere. These days, with two kids, I thankfully (I guess) have plenty of distractions and little time to dwell.
Filed under Personal Reflections
Do you remember your favorite book from childhood?
Heck yes I do. “Doroga uhodit v dal”, aka “The road goes into the distance” by Alexandra Brushtein was the quintessential coming of age story of a Jewish girl at the turn of the 20th century in Czarist Russia. It was a memoir of the author’s growing up and experiencing antisemitism, growth of communism and social class frictions that increasingly led to violence in pre revolution Russia. This book was a childhood favorite of my mom’s which is how a copy ended up in our home library. .
I loved this book so much that when it was accidentally given away to the local Catholic Church (the irony of that does not escape me) when we were packing for immigration, I threw such a monumental fit that my dad went and got the book back. And now it sits on my shelf in my own family library stamped with logo of the Kostyol of Saint Florian of Shargorod.
Even though I rarely read it, it’s yet another link to my childhood and memories of my connection with my mama.
What fears have you overcome and how?
This is kind of an odd prompt. I don’t know if I’ve overcome any fears at all, if anything, it’s more that I’ve come to either accept them somehow or find ways around or through them.
Filed under Personal Reflections
attempts to recover my lost multisyllabic gumption
Reading Into Our Past...
New Jewish Books
Exploring what it means to be Jewish
Jewish Books Are Awesome 