Different Slants

Seeing the World from a New Angle

We Never Would have Met, Norwegian Girl……..by Robert M. Katzman

By Robert M. Katzman © Mother’s Day 2012 (37 years later)

Oh Dear God, it became her eulogy exactly five years later

on Mother’s Day, 2017-

Please let her find peace, somewhere

 

If Jacob the Carpenter

Hadn’t left

Mogilev, Byelorussia in 1901

Traveling from

New York to Kentucky To Chicago

and there met

Rose from Lithuania

We never would have met

 

If the Polish Border Guards

Hadn’t just missed Jacob

When they thrust their

Killing bayonets

Into the haywagon

He hid under and escaped in

We never would have met

 

If Beautiful Teenaged Celia

Alone and from Poland

Hadn’t

Waitressed in Beer Halls

All across Germany to Hamburg

To sail to America

Relentlessly Traveling from

New York to Seattle to Whiting, Indiana

to meet and swiftly marry

Nathan from Minsk

After only one English class

And then move to the

East Side of Chicago

We never would have met

 

If Jacob’s son Israel

Hadn’t decided to skip lunch

In the jungles of New Guinea

One steamy day in World War Two

In the US Army’s big mess hall tent

Just a mile away

He would have been killed

With all the rest of the soldiers there

That day

When a squad of Japanese planes’ bombs

Destroyed the mess hall tent

We never would have met

 

If my tough scarred father, Israel

From the rough and tumble

Jewish West Side of Chicago

Hadn’t returned from World War II

With Japanese shrapnel

Still in him

And then become dazzled by

Sensuous Jewish Anna

Artist and Designer and

Mediterranean Beauty

We never would have met

 

If I hadn’t

Fled in terror at fourteen

From that Crazed and Violent

Artist and Designer to

Chicago’s

Bohemian Hyde Park

We never would have met

 

A year later

If I hadn’t built and opened

A Wooden Newsstand

with friend Rick Munden

And learn to survive on

Hard Chicago Streets

We never would have met

 

If you hadn’t left

Dalton, Illinois for Hyde Park

To learn to play Tennis

And maybe, just maybe

Find a Guy

The right guy

For a tough chick like you

We never would have met

 

When the two doomed

Steel and Speeding

Illinois Central Trains

Smashed and Telescoped

Inside of one another

October 30, 1972

Horribly Killing

Forty-Four Commuters

Except that you

were in the Next Train

Right behind them

We never would have met

 

If your Tennis-Playing Pal

Krystal

Who was also my

Newsstand customer

Hadn’t introduced us at a

Hyde Park Dance in a

Unitarian Church

Well, maybe

We never would have met

 

You were so demure

Pink pants-suit

Quiet, shy

Smiling Norwegian Girl

Me: Scrubbed and Trapped

Jewish Guy

Uncomfortably

Uncharacteristically

in a Suit and Tie

 

We talked for hours

And never even Danced

You left with Krystal

But first inviting me:

“Join us for coffee?”

I said:

“Nope, sorry

Gotta get up early to

Open my Newsstand”

Too Shy

Too Dumb

To even ask for your phone number

And we went our separate ways

 

Except:

You wouldn’t take â€œNo”

For an answer

Determined and Focused

Norwegian Girl

Evidently deciding

That the One Guy

Who wouldn’t hit on you

But wanted to

Talk to you

Was the One Guy

For you

How could I know?

 

Three days later after work

On the Illinois Central Train Platform

Instead of going home

South to 53rd Street

You changed lives by turning

North to 51st Street

To say

“Happy Birthday!”

To me at my Newsstand

Except this time

Dangerously

Dressed to Kill

 

You found me moments later

Shirtless and Sweating

Dirty and Abrupt

Tying up heavy bundles of

Unsold old magazines

To return for credit on my bill

Not in any way

Expecting you–

Blindingly Stunning

Norwegian Girl

To reappear into my empty life

 

Not expecting your:

Long Shining Blond Hair

Your Short Skirt

Your Dynamite legs

Your Big Smile

and the

Promise awaiting me

Behind your Big Blue Eyes

 

You approved of the

Gritty sweating exasperated

Chicago Newspaper Guy

Now Frozen and Speechless

And Beautiful You

were thinking exactly

How Long

Would it take

Star struck Me

To realize

You

Were the Girl for Me?

 

On behalf of all of our

Children and Grandchildren:

The answer was:

Not very long, at all

Even a rough Newspaper Guy

Was smart enough to

Get the message

You were sending

 

I think

all of those

“Never-Would-Have-Mets”

were actually always

“Meant-to-Bes”

 

My Destiny

Was waiting for me

Right there in your Smile

Over forty years later

I love you intensely

Then and forever

Norwegian Girl

 

Bob and Joy, after 42 years together, 39 of them married, renewed their vows in a kind and generous friend’s home in a traditional Jewish ceremony surrounded by family and friends and the service led by Rabbi Martyn Adelberg on Sunday, March 26, 2017.  About sixty people were there, including all four of their children aged 20 to 42, and all five of their small grandchildren.

This was all organized and assembled by a group of very determined women in only two weeks, immediately after Joy was placed in hospice in mid-March because of an incurable and spreading cancer. They decided to share their love with everyone there while she was still alive to experience it, and even though she was no longer able to walk, she was the queen of the evening in a lacy white wedding gown. It was an unforgettable night of ancient Hebrew words, rings exchanged, wine glass crushing, brisket eating, cake cutting, kissing and hugging and enough warmth from the kind hearts there to melt all the ice in the Arctic.

While all friends and relatives present quietly knew they would again be gathered together some unknown date later, that rainy March night, that wonderful night, was hers to remember for the rest of her life, no matter how long that would turn out to be.

 

Final Note:

That time remaining turned out to be exactly seven weeks later, on a Sunday at 5 pm.

Joy’s eventual obituary was originally written as this Mother’s Day gift above to her in May 2012.

It was read by Rabbi Martyn Adelberg, a blessing in our lives, at her Sunday May 21st, 2017 memorial service in Racine, Wisconsin, the day after what would have been Joy’s May 20th 67th birthday

As eternity capriciously decides these things, that happy Mother’s Day gift became her unexpected eulogy because Joy died exactly five years later, on Mother’s Day, My 2017.

 

Publishing News! 

Bob Katzman’s two new true Chicago books are now for sale, from him!
Vol. One: A Savage Heart  and Vol. Two: Fighting Words

Gritty, violent, friendship, classic American entrepreneurship love, death, heartbreak and the real dirt about surviving in a completely corrupt major city under the Chicago Machine. More history and about one man’s life than a person may imagine.

Please visit my new website: https://www.dontgoquietlypress.com
If a person doesn’t want to use PayPaI, I also have a PO Box & I ship anywhere in America.

Send me a money order with your return and contact info.
I will get your books to you within ten days.
Here’s complete information on how to buy my books:

Vol 1: A Savage Heart and Vol. 2: Fighting Words
My books weigh almost 2 pounds each, with about 525 pages each and there are a total together of 79 stories and story/poems.

Robert M. Katzman
Don’t Go Quietly Press
PO Box 44287
Racine, Wis. 53404-9998                                                                                                                    (262)752-3333, 8AM–7PM

Books cost $29.95 each, plus shipping

For: (1)$3.95; (2)$5.95; (3)$7.95; (4)$8.95 (5)$9.95;(6) $10.95

(7) $11.95; (8) $12.95; (9)$13.95 (10)$15.95 (15)$19.95

I am also for hire if anyone wants me to read my work and answer questions in the Chicago/Milwaukee area. Schools should call me for quantity discounts for 30 or more books. Also: businesses, bookstores, private organizations or churches and so on.

My Fighting Words Publishing Co. four original books, published between 2004 and 2007 are now out-of-print. I still have some left and will periodically offer them for sale on my new website.

 Twitter handle: bob_katzman

7 Comments »

Comment by J Steve Adler

May 13, 2012 @ 5:49 am

Much,much better than a mothers day card! Another display of your writing talent, filled with passion!

Comment by Gargi

May 15, 2012 @ 12:53 pm

Responding to your invite to comment, Bob:

Utilizing once again, a familiar motif of your writing– personal historically-condensed recap– you distill the flavor of what matters in an emotional exchange between a couple in long-time, deep, committed relationship.

Essentially, what many
(I will say, perhaps most partners) would (still) want to hear from their beloved– even after all these years:

That “I matter”, that “you remember” the ‘whys’ and ‘wherefores’, and that you have the courage and passion to re-pledge and re-state your love. EVEN in public (making it all the more flavorly empassioned)!

Comment by Gail G.

February 2, 2016 @ 9:46 pm

Powerful, beautiful, and familiar.

Comment by Judy

February 5, 2016 @ 10:30 am

Sweet! Hope your Norwegian Girl is doing well.

Judy

Comment by Claradenise

March 12, 2016 @ 8:04 am

This is so beautiful. Just what a girl needs to hear from her guy. You two are so lucky to have met one another. May many more blessings be with you both. The two of you are definitely meant to be. This is what I call Forever Love.

Comment by Don Larson

March 12, 2016 @ 11:43 am

Hi Bob,

One of your best poems. I think you covered all the heart strings this time.

I hope your wife feels some comfort from your love.

Sincerely,

Don

Comment by E

March 12, 2016 @ 4:16 pm

Profound and moving, with sincere romantic memory and committed devotion to everlasting love. You not only talk the talk; you walk the walk. Definitely a tear-jerker, Bob. Thank you for loving my Joy-ful sister. Love you for that!

E

RSS feed for comments on this post. TrackBack URI

Leave a comment

XHTML: You can use these tags: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <s> <strike> <strong>