Grandma followed grandpa
to Philadelphia from Bălți*
between world wars and
before the horrors unleashed
upon her people in that
embattled Romanian city.
She arrived with the 2-year-old
version of our mom in tow
and generations of recipes
harbored in her head.
Our favorite was apple strudel,
from a recipe she never recorded,
and we could never duplicate,
made from a mix of ingredients
that varied each time she baked.
As much as we tried, we could
never quantify a “bissel”
of this or “little bit” of that
or combine ingredients in a way
that captured the balance
of tartness and sweetness
she baked into her strudel
and that we can only imagine
evoked for grandma life
in the little town she left
and family who stayed behind
and one day would never
be seen or heard from again.
*Bălți has been part of the Russian Empire (1812-1918), Romania (1918-1940), Soviet Union (1940-1941), Romania (1941-1944), and Soviet Union (1944 -1991). After the collapse of the Soviet Union, the city became part of the newly independent country of Moldova in 1991.
