He knew our Sunday routine like the layout of the building he devotedly guarded. Every week at 2:00 p.m. sharp he’d be ready for our invasion. Buzzing us in he’d rush to park Dad’s Caddie and bring in Lili’s stroller while kidding around with Benny and nodding politely at Mom. Grown-ups thought him to be taciturn if not eccentric but to us kids Leonid was the benevolent uncle we never had.

            Each Sunday we’d drive in from Cedarhurst to visit Grandpa Max and Grandma Beth. (They were not our real grandparents but had adopted Mom when she was a child.) After hanging around their ritzy apartment and savoring Grandma’s sumptuous pastries for about ten minutes we were ready for action. While the adults sat with steaming mugs of coffee swapping stories we either slid down the gold banisters or monopolized the elevator. Destination: Leonid.

Though his features were nondescript — his eyes were neither blue nor green and his nose was rather bulbous — we were enamored with him. He did not possess a degree in childhood development or psychology but he did have an intuitive magical charm that drew kids to him like bees to nectar. Whether it was making faces at Lili until she laughed uproariously showing a wide-eyed Benny how the closed-circuit camera worked or fixing my charm bracelet he knew just how to warm our young hearts.

            Initially Mom had frowned upon Leonid giving us candies but she relented when Grandma Beth explained his background one day. Sweet soul that she was Grandma Beth had gently gleaned Leonid’s sad CV. He’d been interred in the frozen tundra of Siberia throughout his prime years. His heinous crime? Having associated with observant Jews in some clandestine study group. Languishing among the lowest elements of society Leonid kept his distance and endured ridicule and derision. After years of this senseless exile the Communists decided he was “reformed ” and released him on probation. Leonid returned home a broken vessel. He applied for a visa to the States in vain. The alarmed authorities were trying to halt the swelling number of emigrants. Leonid remained a refusenik for six long years before receiving his ticket to freedom.

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