Persuaded – Chapter XXXII

Chani

Recap: Velvel renews his contact with his cousin, the choshuveh Rebbetzin Dinnerstein. She and her daughter come for a visit, but Chani is unimpressed.

Velvel and Zahava, excited to have renewed their relationship with Rebbetzin Dinnerstein, made plans to visit her the following week at the home of her patrons, the Bergers. Chani couldn’t bear the thought of another long session of awkward conversation simply to cement a prestigious connection. Prestige or no prestige, she had no interest in sitting around bored again.

Instead, she decided to take advantage of being in Toms River to go visit Leah Stein, an old high school friend. When Chani had arrived at Bais Shprintze the year after her mother had died, withdrawn and miserable with grief over her mother, Leah was one of the few girls who really went out of their way to befriend her and spend time with her over Shabbos.

Leah was an out-of-towner a couple of years older than Chani. A few years after school she had married a man who soon started an up-and-coming real estate business. Chani had gone to the wedding, but lost contact with her friend after that. Now she had heard through a high school chat group that Leah had tragically lost her husband and was living in a small basement apartment in the Westgate area, and barely left the apartment because she had developed severe fibromyalgia.

The post had been written by Toby Epstein, with whom Chani had always had a friendly relationship, and who was herself now married and living in Lakewood. Concerned by the post, Chani gave Toby a call.

“Chani!” Toby exclaimed. Chani could hear children playing noisily in the background. “How are you?”

“I’m actually spending the summer in Toms River with my family,” Chani said.

“Oh wow, so nice! Maybe we’ll see each other!”

“That would be nice,” Chani said, remembering Toby as a big, energetic girl who was congenial enough but had little in common with her. “Listen, I won’t keep you, it sounds like you’re busy. But I saw your post about Leah and I feel so terrible about her situation!”

“Yes,” Toby said. “She’s really in a bad way! There are days she can hardly walk.”

“How does she survive?” Chani wanted to know, her inner social worker aroused. “Isn’t her family really far away, like Chicago or Detroit?”

“They are, and I don’t know how much they’re in a position to help. She’s lucky that she has a landlady who’s very nice to her and helps her find small projects to bring in income, and I think she got herself on disability for now.”

“Do you think she’d want a visitor?” Chani asked.

“She would love it,” Toby declared. “I can’t get away much these days with my baby and the other kids. But if you have some time, it would make her so happy!”

Chani took the number and hesitantly texted Leah to ask if she’d be up for a visit. Leah called back immediately. “It’s so wonderful to hear your voice!” she said warmly. “Please come over!”

When Chani arrived in Westgate a few days later, she had to steel herself against the initial shock of finding Leah sitting in a battered recliner in a dark, cramped basement apartment, an afghan over her legs despite the summer heat. An ancient air conditioner wheezed feeble gusts of cooler air into the room, and a coffee table next to Leah’s chair held a stack of newspapers, a Tehillim, and a mug of once-hot tea.

Chani had known Leah as a vibrant, positive girl, the type to head color war and star in the school play. Now her formerly attractive friend looked frail and diminished, her gray eyes large in her drawn face. Chani was happy she’d had the forethought to come by with croissants, iced coffees and cheese danishes.

“You look great!” Leah said, lighting up at the sight of her, her glowing smile belying her poor pallor and thin limbs. “Exactly the same!”

“Thank you—and how are you feeling? Toby Epstein told me you were having a hard time.”

Leah grunted as she adjusted a pillow, and Chani rushed over to help her. “This fibromyalgia has been awful,” she admitted. “Often I can’t even get out to shop for food. But baruch Hashem my landlady is a tzedekes, and when she goes shopping she always asks what she can pick up for me. And her sister, Suri Rokeach, is a nurse, and whenever she has time she checks me out physically and stays to visit. I don’t need newspapers, chats, nothing with Suri around—she clues me in on all the Lakewood gossip!”

“I heard your husband passed away! That must have been so awful for you. You’re way too young to be a widow!”

Leah sighed. “I never in a million years expected my life would turn out like this,” she said. “When Benjy and I got married our future looked so rosy! His business was doing so well, and we were flush with money. We were this successful, glamorous couple, eating out every night in some fancy restaurant with friends, or attending some gala. My husband was very open-handed with money, and we were for sure living beyond our means, but he’d grown up poor and needed to feel for once like he had lots of money in his pocket. So I didn’t say anything, thinking we’d catch up with our expenses eventually. We also spent a ton of money on medical treatments, because we wanted children but nothing was happening.

“But I was so wrong about our being able to catch up. The pressure got to be way too much for my husband, and he had a sudden heart attack a few years ago. They found him sitting in his car slumped over the steering wheel. My poor Benjy! I had to sell our house in Lawrence, which didn’t benefit me much because we had so many debts to pay off and hadn’t paid off much of the mortgage yet. I decided to move to Lakewood because it’s cheap, and I knew my landlady from before. But I got here in a terrible state. Between the shock of suddenly finding myself a widow and the crushing financial burden, I got sick and I still haven’t recovered.”

“How do you survive financially?” Chani asked.

“Well,” Leah said, “I qualified for disability payments, and food stamps. Also, Suri found me not one, but two ways to make money! I’m learning to do medical billing, which I can do from home, and she knows I’m good with my hands, so she helped me start a little side business making personalized items like children’s yarmulkes and baby clothes. In fact, right now Suri was just hired as a baby nurse for this wealthy lady, Mrs. Wallis, who’s apparently a nice enough person but has more money than brains. She showed Mrs. Wallis some of my samples, and she and some friends have already put in some orders.”

Chani realized Mrs. Wallis must be the wife of Yerucham Elman’s friend, who’d had her sister and Rikki over for a barbecue recently, but kept this information for herself. She found herself deeply impressed by Leah’s cheerfulness and fortitude in the face of such severe physical and financial challenges, and said as much. “Well,” Leah replied with a shrug, “what would be the alternative? I can sit here and bemoan my situation, but nobody wants to be around a depressed, whining person, and then I’d be miserable too! My friends have been wonderful, and I try hard not to overburden anyone.

“I don’t know why Hashem put me in this position, but He surely has a reason, so my job is just to make the best of it. It could be a lot worse, you know. And things change in life; yeshuas Hashem k’cheref ayin and all that. I like to think things could somehow turn around at any time.”

“Oh yes,” Chani responded, thinking of her own single status and wondering which was worse—being single too long, or widowed too young. How did Hashem decide how to distribute life’s challenges? “I hope things turn around for you fast,” she told Leah firmly.

May they turn around for me too, she thought to herself as she picked up her purse and bid her goodbyes, emerging from the dim, dank air of the basement into the brilliant sun of an August day in Westgate.

To be continued.