Miriam Blatt

Nettie and Morris, Mirian and Morton

1911

World War I came along and Morris quit law to sell essential medical supplies, settling in Philadelphia. I was a delegate to a Hadassah Convention there, and I stayed in their apartment. They were warmly hospitable, I enjoyed my stay, saving Hadassah hotel expenses besides. The death of Morris' mother brought them back to Jersey City, to stay with his father in the home they owned. Their first baby, Miriam, was born there, and I was present at the birth, giving me the awesome privilege of seeing the miracle of new life. Nettie could write a story of tragedy, courage and fortitude herself. Morrs was still traveling, his father had also died and they came to live temporarily with the folks in New York until they found an apartment. There, the baby was less than two years old when she died. But life goes on, to use a common cliche, and Nettie came to live with us in Jersey to await the birth of her second child. Morris was away much of the time. Nettie became one of the family at once, with friction or change in our pace. After Morton was born, they bought a home in Brooklyn eventually, and Nettie started teaching again when Morty was old enough to attend Yeshivah Day school. He was sixteen and in High School when he became ill with leukemia. It is hard, even after all these years, to write of this. Remembering Billy, this hit me hard, for Nettie had sent me a poem of consolation, the first two lines of which read: "There was a dancing flame once, Before Death had outblown it."

This was an apparently sturdy boy, big, loving and lovable. "Why does this have to happen to me Mother? I never hurt anybody?" That is what Morris and Ned have to live with. They tried hard to save him, Bud contributed blood twice for transfusion.... They sold their home, and after some considerable traveling, with a long stopover in Mexico, reached California and made their home there. After some years they felt the need to be closer to family, bought a home in St. Petersburg, found the climate unsatisfactory and went Miami Beach. They came north in 1961 when Morris needed an operation, and spent a month with me while he recuperated. It was most pleasant for me to have them -- it was after Pop passed away. They are back in California now.

Leah Kreinick Jacobowitz, As I Remember, 1962, pp 66-67.