My cousins lived next door so we were always together. I’d have preferred to be home alone reading but my mother insisted all that reading wasn’t good for me. I should be outside playing and I was so lucky to have cousins nearby.

Though close in age we were so different. They could sit for hours throwing dice and moving small markers around a board. I couldn’t see the point of it. There was no skill to throwing dice. So why the shouts of glee or the cries of despair?

When the weather forced us indoors their knitting projects came out. Their creations were admired by their mother and mine while I read.

“Such a bookworm you are” someone would say.

“Why don’t you do something useful like your cousins?” my mother would ask.

“Let her be” said my aunt. “We all have different talents and abilities.”

We grew up our lives taking different paths. My husband’s in kollel their husbands entered their father’s business. They have large homes and household help we have a small house easily run by ourselves.

Our daughters go to the same school but I didn’t force a friendship. To my surprise my older daughters Dina and Tzippi did visit their cousins from time to time. When I commented on this they laughed.

“Yes Ima they always invite us there before tests.”

“It’s a good way to study explaining things until everything is clear” Dina added. Tzippi a year younger nodded.

 

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