Open Writing

For the first few days of my new existence, I was more than adequately comforted, and was grateful for this companionship. During the following weeks, I was constantly being invited for meals to well-meaning family and friends who ensured that I was well watered and fed. I filled my diary with dates for all manner of occasions preventing me from being alone. I did not mind living alone, and I recalled Elsa's prophetic remark about me that "if ever you were to be left alone, you would become a hermit".

Nearly all my life I had been living -with someone who arranged my life, told me what to wear and eat, where we were going on holiday, what to say and what not to say, in fact just about everything I needed to make my life good. And suddenly this had all been removed from me and I now had to learn to make my own decisions, and live with them right or wrong.

Over the years since Elsa's death, I think I have managed fairly well and make a life for myself. I am fully aware that on occasion I have said or done something of which Elsa would not have approved, and have had to bear the consequences, rather like a child trying to learn from its mistakes. But I am also aware that at my time of life I have to grow up quickly as I don't have that much time.

In recent years, I have been on holiday by myself once or twice and found it to be a most distressing experience. The saying 'One is never so alone as when one is by oneself in a crowd' is so very true. And I have found that to try to go away with someone is difficult. Single rooms in hotels are almost impossible to book, and since it is not my scene to share with another man and understandably the ladies I know would want their privacy too, I have not been able to find a suitable alternative. In 2004, I was invited to a family wedding in America and I decided to accept, travelling each way by ship. I even thought that I might experience a shipboard romance. However, it just did not happen. Any ladies that I thought might be pleasant to associate with found me too old, and those that thought me attractive were considerably older than me. An impossible situation with no solution!

Incidently, whilst attending the family wedding, my cousin noticed that the Rabbi engaged to conduct the marriage service had disappreared. Foolishly I had previously boasted that I knew all about weddings because, during my 20 years at my Synagogue, I had been involved with some 400 of them as its designated Secretary for Marriages, representing the Registrar for Marriages of the district in which we were located. As the time approached for the proceedings to commence, with my cousin becoming more and more agitated, he turned to me and said "Raymon, you will conduct the wedding!" Of course I immediately refused saying I couldn't do it because I was not empowered to do so. He countered this by saying "You will do the wedding, and in any case no one will know the difference as you look like a Rabbi!"

After almost sweating blood for about 15 minutes, as I tried to recall what I would have to say, the Rabbi returned having forgotten an item of his regalia.

As we move into 2006,1 am now able to say truthfully to anyone who asks, "next birthday I will be eighty". I feel quite well, and try to eat sensibly. I exercise a little and rest as I feel necessary. My next major ambition is to live to be 100 years of age, so that the Queen, or whoever is ruling us at the time, will send me the standard congratulatory communication. I would like to receive one of those.

Lately, as you can see, I have been working on writing my life story and now am really up to date with it. I have provided a 'family tree' for readers to better understand the family relationships I have been able to find out about in my 'Prologue'. I am currently in touch with relations in America, Canada, Australia, Israel and France, besides those from Denmark and others in England, who have been able to fill a lot of gaps in my information, as well as provide me with a tremendous amount of material I never realised I was missing. I am most grateful to them for their help.
In case I don't get another opportunity, I would like to record that I have been fortunate in many ways too, not only for my relationship with Elsa, but because of what I have done and experienced, and the people I have met in my life's travel.

Because of my membership of the Bevin Boys Association, I have been to Buckingham Palace as a VIP and met and indeed conversed with Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth 2 on two occasions; as an employee of The Liberal Jewish Synagogue I have met and conversed with Charles, Prince of Wales; as an employee of several casinos in London, I have met and conversed with famous sport personalities; stage, film and TV stars;
many Lords and Ladies of the 'Establishment', public figures in politics and finance; as well as some doubtful and insalubrious characters of the underworld. And in B'nai B'rith, I have been involved with its national and international affairs getting, in 1984, to Washington DC to attend its International Convention that year, when one of the main speakers was the then President of the United States Ronald Reagan.

And, because of Elsa, I have visited some wonderful places abroad. And of course, in 1947, I must have been one of the first young people to 'break the mould' in at least starting on a journey that was meant to take me round the world.

As I write this, I feel well and would like to assume that my life is far from over, and that I might even consider starting an "Epilogue" perhaps entitled "2006-2016 - The remaining years". Who knows! Keep checking this space as I keep taking the pills!

I would like to express my great appreciation and thanks to my relatives in America, Australia, Israel, France, from Denmark, and that mysterious group from Hungary, who have all helped me to complete this record, for without them it would not have happened or have been incomplete. I hope my family will enjoy reading about their beginnings, and that their successors will be able to derive much knowledge and pleasure in discovering their 'roots'. In the meantime I hope I haven't offended or maligned anyone, as I certainly had no intention of doing so and, since this is only my interpretation of events as I recalled them, or learned of them, I most sincerely apologise if others recall them differently and for any hurt I may have unintentionally caused.

And, in a final paragraph, I would like to demonstrate how coincidence can play a most important role in life and how Elsa, almost five years after her death, is still involving herself and managing my affairs. The gentleman who owns the printing company I have engaged to put all this into book form, Print Discount Ltd trading as PNC Print and Design, has told me that his wife sent his children to Rexton Nursery School, and that some thirty years ago when he was recovering from a car accident, Elsa continued to accept his children at a reduced fee!

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EDITOR'S NOTE: Raymon did continue writing. There will be further words from him.