Page 20 - Cayle Chernin: My Russian Relatives

ISSUE : Issue 66

Published by Ronald Caplan on 1994/6/1

I saw in Russia, also, there's a real similarity in the way the families per? ceive themselves or interact. I could see it in the way that these people were with each other. How tight they were with each other, how tight they were as a family unit. How they depended on each other, how much contact they had with each oth? er. So when they received me, they re? ceived me the same way as if I was coming to Cape Breton and going to Aunt Etta's house, and over to Aunt Shirley's and staying out at Mira. I mean, Mira belongs to a couple of the Chernin boys, you know, and I'm as welcome to use it as anybody. It's a family thing. My father built that cottage. It's gone through ??different chang? es and so on but you really feel like you're home. And I felt that in some way in Russia, as well. That I was welcomed there as a family mem? ber. And they brought me into their home and they treated me royally and they were thrilled to know that they had relatives. It's like we found each oth? er. It's like 0 SOLID ' STIHL YOUNG'S POWER EQUIPMENT LTD. Millville • Boularderie * Phone 674-2008 GEORGE MacNEIL MEATS Ltd. POINT ACONI 736-8249 ROAD • 736-3518 Now! is the time to fill your freezer for the long Winter ahead! BEEF • Cayle at the Jewish Cemetery, Glace Bay when you find a missing link. It's like when something's lost and you think it can never be found again but, in fact, it can be found again. That, for me, is my particular journey. It's that you can find things again. You can go back and you can fill up the miss? ing pieces, you know. There is a way to do that. So sitting beside Uncle Boris, ar? riving in Russia, was for me like sitting beside Grandpa Chernin and having that sense of being a little girl and having my grandfather be there for me. I lost my grandfather. Grandpa Chernin, when I was sixteen. It was a crushing blow, he was the first to go. And my other grandfather followed somewhat thereafter, and my Aunt Bessie and so on. But that was the first major death, the first major loss. And this was redeeming it, this was a way of getting it back, somehow. Going to Russia was a way of finding our roots. I did it not just for me, but for CUT AND WRAPPED FOR YOUR FREEZER ?Front Quarter $1.79 lb. • Hind Quarter $2.39 lb. • Side of Beef $1.99 lb. • Fresh Pork by the Side $1.49 lb. sail iBiEE mm AVOID DISAPPOINTMENT ! - COME EARLY! "ARM OF GOLD" Campground & Trailer Park Open Field on Lake • 35 Acres • Sewage Disposal Tables • Rec Hall Groceries* Ice Laundromat • Canteenl 46 UNSERVICED SITES OPEN MAY 15 to OCTOBER 1 Phone (902) 736-6516 or 736-6671 on Route 105 at Little Bras d'Or, Cape Breton ImiUsjromHiewjoundhnd'crrjf Beautiful Bras d'Or Invites You... Good Service Sor Our Neighbours and Our Visitors COMPLETE MACHINE SHOP SERVICES Sid's Machine Siiop in BRAS D'OR • Diesel & Hydraulic Repairs • Millwrighting Services Box 758, RR 1 736-9118 General Welding: Aluminum & Stainless Bras d'Or: A Cape Breton Island Centre

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