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July 24, 2009
Stories about family
Winnipeg writer shares her memories, feelings.
CYNTHIA RAMSAY
Touching stories, funny remembrances, poems and photographs fill Ricki Segal's My Zayde and Other Memories of Growing Up Jewish (DriverWorks Ink).
Born and raised in Winnipeg, Segal shares some very personal experiences in this book about her family and life, but she does so in a style that will appeal to a larger audience, especially within the Jewish community.
"I don't think it matters where you have grown up," Segal told the Independent about who may enjoy her book. "I think what I am portraying is an era of growing up Jewish or any other ethnic background anywhere in Canada or the USA. In my poem 'Wheat Fields,' for example, I wrote this for a boyfriend many years ago while I was living in Toronto. I wanted him to understand the beauty of the prairies. The story 'The Doll,' I wrote this because of the strong connection my family has to Alzheimer disease. I wanted them to understand that even though a person may be ill and not be able to articulate their feelings, that they still had a soul inside."
Though Segal has lived in Regina and Toronto, she and her second husband, Harold Segal, moved back to Winnipeg last year, as her mother is in a nursing home with advanced Alzheimer's. "I wanted to be near her and see her as often as I can," said Segal, who is donating $2 from every book sale to the Alzheimer Society of Canada.
Segal has three adult children – Brenlee, who lives in Ft. McMurray, Alta.; Michael, who lives in Burlington, Ont.; and Marshall, who lives in Regina – and five grandchildren. Readers of My Zayde and Other Memories of Growing Up Jewish will get to meet them and other members of Segal's family, past and present, including those living on the West Coast.
"Some of my family moved to Vancouver," Segal told the Independent. "My brother, Marvin Stern, and his wife, Sherri Silverman, along with my niece and nephew live in Vancouver. My cousins, Susan Lazar and Gary Lazar, along with their family, live in Vancouver as well."
In her book, Segal includes a story called "The Boys at the Blue Parrot Café." It's about a group of former Winnipeggers who all grew up in the city's North End. Here in Vancouver, they meet once a week at the Blue Parrot Café on Granville Island and "reminisce about the old days." With her father having died in 2004 and with her mother suffering from Alzheimer's and Parkinson's, Segal writes, "I had a longing to connect with people from my growing up years in Winnipeg. I felt that I was lost, floating between my past and my present. My family – who had been my stability, my rock – was drifting in a sea of oblivion." When attending a family bar mitzvah in Vancouver, Segal visited with "the boys," in the hope that they would help her feel more grounded, and they did.
The Winnipeg connection is strong throughout Segal's book.
"Growing up in Winnipeg means that I was able to establish very close ties to my grandparents, aunts and uncles and cousins," said Segal. "Since I lived in Winnipeg and my parents had been able to give us kids a Jewish education, I find myself, as I am getting older, using a smattering of Yiddish in my daily language. I have a very rich upbringing and my family made me the person that I am today.
"The book My Zayde and Other Memories of Growing Up Jewish is a tribute to my family.... The reason that I chose to write this book was that living with the threat of Alzheimer's disease, I live daily with the fear that I could be the next one to get the disease. I wanted this to be a legacy to my family and also a tribute to our heritage."
To order a copy of My Zayde, call 1-306-545-5293 or visit driverworks.ca. The book is also being sold at Blackberry Books on Granville Island.
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