[00:00.00]Lesson Ten
[00:02.90]Text
[00:05.46]The Washwoman
[00:08.41]I. B . Singer
[00:11.36]Our home had little contact with Gentiles.
[00:16.04]But there were the Gentile washwomen who came to the house to fetch our laundry
[00:23.30]My story is about one of these.
[00:27.35]She was a small woman,old and wrinkled.
[00:33.49]When she started washing for us,she was already past seventy.
[00:39.94]Most Jewish women of her age were sickly, weak, broken in body.
[00:47.10]But this washwoman,small and thin as she was,
[00:53.05]possessed a strengththat came from generations of peasant ancestors.
[00:58.93]Mother would count out to her a bag of laundry
[01:04.08]that had accumulated over several weeks.
[01:08.15]She would lift the heavy bag, load it on her narrow shoulders,
[01:14.11]and carry it the long way home.
[01:18.55]It must have been a walk of an hour and a half.
[01:23.23]She would bring the laundry back about two weeks later.
[01:27.88]My mother had never been so pleased with any washwoman.
[01:33.13]Every piece of laundry was as clean as polished silver.
[01:38.19]Every piece was neatly ironed.Yet she charged no more than the others.
[01:45.46]She was a real find.
[01:48.70]Mother always had her money ready
[01:52.46]because it was too far for the old woman to come a second time.
[01:57.63]Washing clothes was not easy in those days
[02:01.99]The old woman had no tap where she lived,
[02:06.25]but had to bring in the water from a pump.
[02:10.32]For the clothes and bedclothes to come out so clean,
[02:15.08]they had to be scrubbed thoroughly in a washtub,
[02:19.73]rinsed with washing soda,soaked,boiled in an enormous pot,starched,then ironed
[02:28.58]Every piece was handled ten times or more.
[02:33.44]And the drying!It had to be hung in the attic.
[02:38.41]She could have begged at the church door or entered a home for the poor and aged
[02:45.38]But there was in her a certain pride
[02:49.33]and love of labor with which many Gentiles have been blessed.
[02:56.09]The old woman did not want to become a burden, and so bore her burden.
[03:02.62]The woman had a son who was rich.
[03:06.38]I no longer remember what sort of business he had.
[03:10.75]He was ashamed of his mother, the washwoman,and never came to see her.
[03:16.99]Nor did he ever give her any money. The old woman told this without bitterness
[03:24.93]One day the son was married.It seemed that he had made a good match.
[03:30.81]The wedding took place in a church.
[03:34.47]The son had not invited the old mother to his wedding,
[03:39.22]but she went to the churchand
[03:42.69]waited at the steps to see her son lead the "young lady" to the altar...
[03:48.44]The story of the faithless son left a deep impression on my mother.
[03:54.81]She talked about it for weeks and months.
[04:04.38]Mother would argue,"Does it pay to make sacrifices for children?
[04:10.91]The mother uses up her last strength,
[04:14.67]and he does not even know the meaning of loyalty.
[04:19.32]"That winter was a harsh one. The streets were icy.
[04:23.97]No matter how much we heated our stove,the windows were covered with frost.
[04:30.81]The newspapers reported that people were dying of the cold Coal became dear.
[04:38.75]The winter had become so severe that parents stopped sending children to school
[04:45.52]On one such day the washwoman, now nearly eighty years old, came to our house
[04:53.88]A good deal of laundry had accumulated during the past weeks.
[04:59.02]Mother gave her a pot of tea to warm herself as well as some bread.
[05:06.00]The old woman sat on a kitchen chair trembling and shaking,
[05:12.45]and warmed her hands against the teapot.
[05:16.89]Her fingers were rough from work,and perhaps from arthritis, too.
[05:23.66]Her fingernails were strangely white.
[05:27.73]These hands spoke of the stubbornness of mankind,of the will to work
[05:35.10]not only as one's strength permitsbut beyond the limits of one's power.
[05:42.54]The bag was big,bigger than usual.
[05:46.93]When the woman placed it on her shoulders,it covered her completely.
[05:52.57]At first she stayed,as though she were about to fall under the load.
[05:59.52]But an inner stubbornness seemed to call out: No, you may not fall.
[06:06.97]A donkey may permit himself to fall under his burden,
[06:11.51]but not a human being,the best of creation.
[06:16.24]She disappeared, and mother sighed and prayed for her.
[06:21.91]More than two months passed.
[06:25.36]The frost had gone,and then a new frost had come, a new wave of cold.
[06:33.12]One evening, while Mother was sitting near the oil lamp mending a shirt,
[06:39.49]the door opened and a small puff of steam,
[06:44.64]followed by a gigantic bag, entered the room.
[06:49.31]I ran toward the old woman and helped her unload her bag.
[06:55.27]She was even thinner now, more bent.
[06:59.53]Her head shook from side to side as though she were saying no.
[07:05.48]She could not utter a clear word,
[07:09.24]but mumbled something with her sunken mouth and pale lips.
[07:14.70]After the old woman had recovered somewhat she told us that she had been ill.
[07:21.65]Just what her illness was,I cannot remember.
[07:26.20]she had been so sick that called a doctor,and the doctor had sent for a priset
[07:34.24]Some had informed the son,
[07:37.77]and he had contributed money for a coffin and for the funeral.
[07:42.84]But God had not yet wanted to take this soul full of pain to himself.
[07:48.69]She began to feel better ,she became well,
[07:53.44]and as soon as she was able to stand on her feet onee more,she began her washing
[08:00.91]Not just ours, but the wash of several other families, too.
[08:06.84]"I could not rest easy in my bed because of the wash,
[08:11.68]" the old woman explained."The wash would not let me die."
[08:18.52]"With the help of God you will live to be a hundred and twenty,
[08:24.14]"said my mother,as a blessing."God forbid!
[08:29.81] What good would such a long life be?
[08:32.89]The work becomes harder and harder...
[08:36.26]my strength is leaving me...
[08:39.60]I do not want to be a burden on anyone!
[08:43.76]" The old woman crossed herself,and raised her eyes toward heaven.
[08:49.92]Fortunately there was some money in the house
[08:54.75]and Mother counted out what she owed.
[08:58.59]Then she left, promising to return in a few weeks for a new load.
[09:04.94]But she never came back.
[09:08.21]The wash she had returned was her last effort on this earth.
[09:13.95]She had been driven
[09:17.11]by an indomitable will to return the property to its rightful owners,
[09:22.86]to fulfill the task she had undertaken.
[09:27.22]And now at last her body,
[09:30.98]which had long been supported only by the force of honesty and duty, had fallen
[09:38.74]Her soul passed into those spheres where all holy souls meet,
[09:43.92]regardless of the roles they played on this earth,
[09:48.07]in whatever tongue, of whatever religion.
[09:52.33]I cannot imagine paradise without this Gentile washwoman.
[09:57.58]I cannot even imagine a world where there is no reward for such effort. |