Ann works hard at the synagogoue but Charles doesn't pay child support or the second mortgage on the house, and so the house is lost.
THE GOD GAMES : Heaven & Hell...Chapter 25...HELL
When I had been working in the synagogue for two years, the rabbi told the congregation that he was working on a new book, and that he was going to spend his summer sabbatical in the Idlewild mountains with an old boyhood friend, Dr. Jonas, who was a famous scientist, and who wanted to spend some time discussing the subject of religion and spirituality together, they would co-author the book. It was a wildly exciting time for Rabbi and the congregation, and of course for those of us who would be transcribing the book, Christine and I, when the summer was over.
The Rabbi came back from his summer with a new lease on life and lots of work for Christine and me. We would take the tapes home with us and transcribe the tapes in the evening. It was a wonderful privilege to listen to the thoughts and dreams of the two great minds. I will not divulge what was said as that was sacred between the two men, but Christine and I privately wondered when the rabbi was going to get around to the answers that this scientist was seeking. Rabbi spoke on a very high and scholarly level, but the scientist's questions were of the more personal, simple nature of a man seeking to know God better, and fit that knowledge into the format of scientific logic.
Besides working as one of the synagogue secretaries, I was also active as a member. I was on the ritual committee and organized the yahrzeits (remembrance of relatives who had passed away) and minyan attendance so that each morning and each evening minyan was met, and prayers and the Kaddish could be said. A minyan is the requirement of ten men to say the prayers and lay on teffilan. I also organized the High Holy Day choir and sang in it.
I loved Congregation Beth Simcha and each member of the shul (synagogue). I knew each nook and cranny of that building and many a night would find me alone in the building praying. Yet I never felt alone for all the spirits of passed members of the synagogue were there with me, guarding the Torah. And the joy of holding a Torah Scroll on Simchat Torah (Joy of the Torah) cannot be put into simple words.
The enrgy in the synagogue was palpable. So many of our members were victims of the Holocaust and our walls were lined with their relative's names and dates. Twenty-eight years have passed and when I think of the shul I can still feel surrounded by their presence.
During the years I had worked at the synagogue I was also involved with Jewish Singles and had met a wonderful young man named Phil. Phil had never been married and had no children, but he and I dated for some time. He was a very exciting man and we went everywhere together. One day Phil dropped around to the synagogue office and asked me out for lunch. At lunch he asked me to marry him and of all the terrible things to do, I laughed out loud. I thought sure he was joking; how could he seriously want to marry a woman with five children? Then I saw the stricken look on his face and I have regretted my laughter for over 25 years; if I could only take it back. I told him why I had laughed and that I thought the world of him, but he needed to marry someone who could give him children. We did not date again.
Shortly thereafter, I introduced myself to Ben. Ben was 40 years older than I, but what a human dynamo. He had made a great deal of money in construction and had his fingers in the running of several synagogues, including ours. He was a mover and a shaker and he had caused me to admire him many times over the years, especially in his level of presence in our shul. We dated and things were serious between us, but I began to see that just having money does not a hero make. He promised my children many things for their future, and I was sure he would keep his word, but his aim was not to help me raise my children, but to put them in schools in Europe. This proposal did not suit me at all and the relationship was never meant to be. I began to pull away; several things were brewing in "real life" for me and my family.
Around this time I had fallen in love with computers and when offered a job at a photo developing company, I jumped at the opportunity, because I got to use a computer to price the packages of developed film. I was making more money that at the shul, and I felt my life going in a different direction. After work I would just go back by the mainframe and stare at the massive computer. I wanted to work with those wonderful machines; I wanted to become a computer programmer.
Then I heard from the company that held the second mortgage on the house and learned that Charles had never made a payment on the house and I was now in foreclosure. My parents would not give me the money to make up the back payments and I had no one else to turn to. Yes, I could have asked Ben, but that would have made me "owe" him something and I did not want to be under his thumb. I did not know what I was going to do. I also learned from the Welfare Department that Charles was not making his child support payments to them.
Tomorrow, Ann is saved from the streets by Bruce...
THE GOD GAMES : Heaven & Hell...Chapter 25...HELL
When I had been working in the synagogue for two years, the rabbi told the congregation that he was working on a new book, and that he was going to spend his summer sabbatical in the Idlewild mountains with an old boyhood friend, Dr. Jonas, who was a famous scientist, and who wanted to spend some time discussing the subject of religion and spirituality together, they would co-author the book. It was a wildly exciting time for Rabbi and the congregation, and of course for those of us who would be transcribing the book, Christine and I, when the summer was over.
The Rabbi came back from his summer with a new lease on life and lots of work for Christine and me. We would take the tapes home with us and transcribe the tapes in the evening. It was a wonderful privilege to listen to the thoughts and dreams of the two great minds. I will not divulge what was said as that was sacred between the two men, but Christine and I privately wondered when the rabbi was going to get around to the answers that this scientist was seeking. Rabbi spoke on a very high and scholarly level, but the scientist's questions were of the more personal, simple nature of a man seeking to know God better, and fit that knowledge into the format of scientific logic.
Besides working as one of the synagogue secretaries, I was also active as a member. I was on the ritual committee and organized the yahrzeits (remembrance of relatives who had passed away) and minyan attendance so that each morning and each evening minyan was met, and prayers and the Kaddish could be said. A minyan is the requirement of ten men to say the prayers and lay on teffilan. I also organized the High Holy Day choir and sang in it.
I loved Congregation Beth Simcha and each member of the shul (synagogue). I knew each nook and cranny of that building and many a night would find me alone in the building praying. Yet I never felt alone for all the spirits of passed members of the synagogue were there with me, guarding the Torah. And the joy of holding a Torah Scroll on Simchat Torah (Joy of the Torah) cannot be put into simple words.
The enrgy in the synagogue was palpable. So many of our members were victims of the Holocaust and our walls were lined with their relative's names and dates. Twenty-eight years have passed and when I think of the shul I can still feel surrounded by their presence.
During the years I had worked at the synagogue I was also involved with Jewish Singles and had met a wonderful young man named Phil. Phil had never been married and had no children, but he and I dated for some time. He was a very exciting man and we went everywhere together. One day Phil dropped around to the synagogue office and asked me out for lunch. At lunch he asked me to marry him and of all the terrible things to do, I laughed out loud. I thought sure he was joking; how could he seriously want to marry a woman with five children? Then I saw the stricken look on his face and I have regretted my laughter for over 25 years; if I could only take it back. I told him why I had laughed and that I thought the world of him, but he needed to marry someone who could give him children. We did not date again.
Shortly thereafter, I introduced myself to Ben. Ben was 40 years older than I, but what a human dynamo. He had made a great deal of money in construction and had his fingers in the running of several synagogues, including ours. He was a mover and a shaker and he had caused me to admire him many times over the years, especially in his level of presence in our shul. We dated and things were serious between us, but I began to see that just having money does not a hero make. He promised my children many things for their future, and I was sure he would keep his word, but his aim was not to help me raise my children, but to put them in schools in Europe. This proposal did not suit me at all and the relationship was never meant to be. I began to pull away; several things were brewing in "real life" for me and my family.
Around this time I had fallen in love with computers and when offered a job at a photo developing company, I jumped at the opportunity, because I got to use a computer to price the packages of developed film. I was making more money that at the shul, and I felt my life going in a different direction. After work I would just go back by the mainframe and stare at the massive computer. I wanted to work with those wonderful machines; I wanted to become a computer programmer.
Then I heard from the company that held the second mortgage on the house and learned that Charles had never made a payment on the house and I was now in foreclosure. My parents would not give me the money to make up the back payments and I had no one else to turn to. Yes, I could have asked Ben, but that would have made me "owe" him something and I did not want to be under his thumb. I did not know what I was going to do. I also learned from the Welfare Department that Charles was not making his child support payments to them.
Tomorrow, Ann is saved from the streets by Bruce...
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