Starting Agfiin Starting Again
Another Country, a New Family
for about $2,000, meaning that my father-in-law’s contribution for one year was the equivalent of two cars. He was not a rich man, but he put his money where his mouth was. For his seventy-fifth birthday, three years before he died, Phillip donated the bulk of his estate to build a new retirement home in Israel. Ruthie says, “He took everything he owned, whatever mon- ey he saved up over his lifetime, and he gave it away to Israel.” A plaque at the retirement home reads, “Donated by Gertrude and Phillip Silverstein.” Although we did not profit financially from this decision, we were extremely proud that he had left his life savings to a noble cause. I can attest that everyone in the family survived financially and none of us are starving. Phillip lived up to his ideals, and I hope we all follow in his footsteps. My mother-in-law was a busy woman. She helped with her hus- band’s business; packages were always arriving from suppliers, and there were lots of things to do. They always invited people to their home for dinner on Friday nights and the Jewish holidays, especially Passover. Sometimes they would have as many as thir- ty-five guests. These dinners were major undertakings, and my mother-in-law never had help. She was from the old school, and she believed in doing things herself. She prepared all the food and handled everything personally. With my marriage to Ruthie, my immigration status changed to permanent resident. I received a Green Card, which allowed me to be legally employed. From then on, I was always gainfully em- ployed and was never unemployed for even a single day. Ruthie also worked outside of the house until we had children; she re- turned to work when our daughter was twelve years old. At first I worked for Ruthie’s father, driving and helping to ex - pand the business. But after a few months, I realized I would not have a great future in his business. I was not eager to run around collecting money, a type of work that was difficult for me because of my disability. Also, Phillip was fairly set in his ways and stren- uously resisted my suggestions for improving the business. He
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