It is a Jewish custom to name a child after people who
have lived long and fullfilling lives. I am named after my mother's
maternal grandparents, Matilda and Samuel. Sam was a tailor who smoked
cigars. He wasn't supposed to smoke, but every night after dinner he
would go for a walk with my mother, then a girl, and buy a cigar to smoke
on the way home. He would give her the paper ring and she could wear it
on her finger as long as no one, especially her grandmother, could see.
Tillie as she was called, and there is some question about whether or not
her name was really Matilda, had thick hair and made my mother poundcake
and rice pudding, both of which she could eat publicly. They died just
before I was born.
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