My heritage no 1
by Jilliana
Ranicar-Breese
I come from a
small Jewish middle class professional family. I
was born in December 1944 in the suburb of
Liverpool called Childwall. My father was still
overseas behind enemy lines in Germany and did
not see me until he was demobbed in 1945 when the
war had ended, He was an independent solicitor
specialising in divorce, probate and conveyancing.
He was Simon Bernard Levin, known as Bertie. He
had met my mother Peggy next door in Liverpool
when she came from Swansea after the death of her
parents to live with her brother Lewis and had
married when she was 26 and he 31 in l937. They
had honeymooned in Paris and the French Riviera
especially Nice.
Bertie was the one who went to Liverpool
University, studied law and got a distinction.
His older brother Marcus ran the family
haberdashery business, started by my grandfather
Abraham who died suddenly at the age of 40. Uncle
Mark had to stop his education to take over the
business. He was a high up Mason and lived with
his younger sister Gertrude who became their
housekeeper until they all finally married.
Auntie Gertie was a house Frau who married an
insurance salesman called Harry Freeman. They
were happily married but had no children. She
dotted on him until he eventually died. She was
heartbroken and only lived longer believing she
would reunite with him in heaven.
Her passion to pass the days, was reading
magazines like ‘The Tattler’ and
studying The Royals. This was her fantasy world,
where she could escape to, over the rainbow. She
grew very fat but her enormous size did not worry
henpecked Harry. Auntie Gertie and Uncle Harry
would come every Friday without fail for the
sumptuous dinner my mother would cook.
Uncle Mark married Zella Greenberg and had 2
children named Jack and Ruth. They all lived in
Hillside, a suburb of Southport, by the sea.
Consequently we would drive over every other
Sunday to visit the family. As I was much younger
than my cousins, we never bonded. I always was
car sick and dreaded the hour’s journey. The
other Sunday they came to Liverpool to visit us.
Always the same routine throughout my childhood
until Zella died and Uncle Mark, lonely,
eventually married his Jewish carer. His children
did not accept her, feeling she was an intruder.
But he was determined to marry her against all
odds. I was much younger than my cousins and so
we never bonded. Jack became an articled clerk to
my father and married Barbara Harris. Ruth went
to South Africa to find a young man to marry. She
finally met a lawyer called Lionel Hodes and tied
the knot. Happy that the children were signed
sealed and delivered, Mark died
peacefully.
Written
10/3/25 at Nightingale.
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