Lest It Be Forgotten After I Am Gone: Recollections Of Relocations - 13
Raymon Benedyk, having worked in America, returns to England where he meets the girl of his dreams.
It was during this time that I bought myself a car, a 1936 Studerbaker, for $200. I was now able to go around with friends as their chauffeur, which did make me even more popular. However, after a couple of weeks of use, I found that the clutch needed renewing at a cost of $25. This did not please me but, having the work done and showing the mechanic that I only had $22 in my wallet, he took $20, leaving me with $2 for food for the rest of the week! I made it last too, not digging further into my savings. I then arranged to sell the car to an interested party and got $175 back. My two weeks of ownership had cost me $45 dollars from my savings, but it taught me a lesson to be more careful in future.
As 1948 came to an end, I began to make my plans on moving west, with the idea of getting to California during 1949 where I would stay for a year or two accumulating finds to finance my way across the Pacific to Australia. However, in the Spring my father wrote to tell me that one of his brothers with wife from London was planning a visit to New York in the Summer and, this being the case, I felt it would be inexcusably rude for me to depart before their arrival. I decided to delay my departure until the Autumn after they had gone back to England.
However, when that uncle arrived he took me aside to make it known to me that my father’s partner was diddling him and that I was needed back home. This did not please me as I had other plans but, being a somewhat dutiful son, I decided that instead of going westward I would in fact go east to England and make a short visit to my family. I had the money and would use it for that purpose. So I arranged a booking on the Queen Mary no less out of New York on October 1st 1949, exactly to the day two years since my arrival. Not for me the indignity of shared toilets and four tier bunks this time. I was going to show my family that I had done well in America.
My young cousin and one or two of his friends came to the docks to see me off and were permitted a short time on board before sailing. I don’t know how it was but he immediately recognised a young lady as a prostitute and arranged for me to meet her in her cabin after the ship had sailed. A few hours later I dutifully went to her cabin and, knocking on the door, got no response. However, on trying again, the door was opened by a large well built young man stripped to the waist who told me to clear off in no uncertain terms. I wasn’t that disappointed.
I arrived in England and back to London a few days later where I was met by relatives and friends. It was all very nice and pleasant to be amongst them again. I soon made it known to my parents that I was intending to go back to America and was only with them for a while. This probably was not pleasing for them to learn; after all, I was their only offspring. My father was not aware of any wrongdoing by his partner, and I can only assume that it was not as serious as my uncle gave me to understand, or the story had been concocted to get me to return home.
However, as fate would have it, my mother had a good friend with whom she worked on a charity committee. The committee were arranging a fund raising dance to which I most reluctantly agreed to attend. My mother’s friend had a daughter, Elsa, who had just obtained a BA with Honours degree at London University who was also persuaded against her will to attend the dance, where we were introduced. We always surmised that our mother’s had set us up with mine not wanting me to go back on my travels, and with her mother wanting her daughter to ‘meet a nice boy’. As it happens, we were pleased with what we each found and, needless to say, I did not return to America and we officially became ‘an item’. At the end of 1950 we became engaged and on December 16th 1951 we married.
Right from the onset of our friendship, Elsa and I had no secrets and soon learned what each of us enjoyed in our relationship. We went out a lot, to the theatre, cinema and concerts and could just as happily do nothing together – just being together was sufficient. Soon after we became engaged we were invited to a New Years Eve party and met a young man, in a small way of business who was looking for a Secretary. Elsa told him of her availability and a few days later she had the job. During later years, between pregnancies, Elsa continued to work for him, and we have remained good friends with the young man, wife and family, ever since
In the summer of 1951, we were offered a flat in the same complex as my parents, which we jumped at. During the final months of 1951 we furnished it out to our liking and, before we married at the end of 1951, we had a lovely home to move into at 2 Crown Lane Gardens.
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If you wish to make a donation to the Elsa Benedyk Memorial Fund, set up by her friends and colleagues entirely without Raymon’s knowledge to provide funds to support the children's ward of the Shaare Zedek Hospital in Jerusalem to commemorate her life of work with children in her nursery schools, it would be most gratefully received. The amount that you give will not be revealed to Raymon. He is not a trustee of the fund. Your cheque, payable to the Fund, should be sent to the fund's Treasurer Mrs I Dokelman, 14 Charville Court, 30/32 Gayton Road, Harrow, Middx HA1 2HT.
