When the Menorah Fades by Zvi Preigerzon

Author:Zvi Preigerzon
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781644692479
Publisher: Academic Studies Press
Published: 2019-02-15T00:00:00+00:00

1 Pejorative name for ethnic Ukrainians.

Chapter 14

The days that followed were immeasurably worse. The maternity ward of the hospital was rather deprived at that moment—half of the building had been turned into a military hospital tending to the wounded, even though the number of pregnant women in Hadiach and its environs had hardly diminished. Most of the doctors had been enlisted in the war effort.

Anna Dimitriyevna, the somewhat elderly nurse with the pretty hair, was now the one in charge of all comings and goings in the hospital. She assigned Firochka a bed. She then stood there before the bed and stared at the young woman for a little while. There were five beds in the room. Five women in labor were there hard at their woman’s work. Anna Dimitriyevna fixed her gaze on Firochka, her unkempt hair, and her suffering, sweaty face. So, this was the wife of that young man who used to come visit her in her apartment two years ago?

“Oy, Mommy!” Firochka burst out screaming. Anna Dimitriyevna looked at her for a little while longer, and then cautiously stepped out of the room. The senior nurse at the hospital bore a rather heavy yoke. True, by rights she ought to quickly bring Doctor Orlov from the military ward to the bedside of this young woman in labor. He was an expert obstetrician. But the senior nurse was busy, she was so very, very busy!

In the evening the condition of the young woman who was having such difficulty giving birth took a turn for the worse, as her fever rose to over thirty-nine degrees. Haim Yakov and Pesya, who had been waiting all this time out in the hospital yard, were notified that Firochka’s condition was critical. At last Orlov had been rushed to her bedside. He examined the woman in labor and shook his head.

On top of all this, the skies went dark and a pouring rain began to come down. Tamar shut the windows. The old folks were over at the hospital and she was all alone in her room. Outside the storm was raging, the rain was whipping down, and the thunder was rolling through. However, in the house the sound of the clock on the wall could be heard ticking away as usual. Its pendulum went swinging back and forth.

Somebody hurriedly opened the door. It was Grandma Pesya. She was wrapped up in her robe, with drops of water falling from her body. Her face was bewildered and aflame. She turned to Tamar and said in a firm voice:

“Get dressed, Tamar, and let’s go!”

“Where are we going? It’s raining outside!”

“The rain has stopped. We must go! Firochka is very ill.”

The old woman and her granddaughter stepped outside. The rain had stopped, and a multicolored rainbow was cutting a path for itself between the thick clouds. The sun still hid, but one could already hear its approaching footsteps. The rainbow cut across the face of the heavens. The world was steeped in moisture, and the green foliage lay there in the gardens, saturated and dripping.

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