My sister was cleaning her closet and found my grandfather (his photo, I mean.)

Spring cleaning can yield treasures. Here’s my Russian grandfather, Isador Shapiro, who came to America, candling eggs, looking for blood spots, to save passage for his wife and ten children to come to America. But there was another pogrom in Berdichev. My grandmother, Bubbie in both of my novels, Miriam the Medium, and Kaylee’s Ghost, had to escape with her ten kids.  Isador lost touch with them, and tried everything to find them. Finally, they were reunited in the Bronx, ten years later, with only five surviving children.