Wacek Kornblum’s aunt Chana Tygiel

Wacek Kornblum’s aunt Chana Tygiel

This is my stepmom’s sister, Chana, with a friend of hers - I don't know who. This picture was taken in Lodz, in 1908.

Some time around 1929 Dad got married the second time, to Lonia - Lea, maiden name Mileband and she became my mom. Out of the parents of Mom Lonia I only remember Grandmother, we called her Bube Gele, Grandma Gele. She was born in Warsaw, I don't know which year. She came from a religious family. I remember her as if through fog, only in bed, because she was sick. Not a small woman, dressed traditionally, in dark colors, she had a white collar. She treated me rather coolly. When I was a very little boy, I remember that whenever she was to visit us on Friday, Mom would quickly light candles, which I couldn't understand, because it was so unlike Mom. I think it was about 1933 when she died. Mom's father's name was Ber Wolf Mileband. I know nothing about him.

Grandma Gele lived at the same yard as we did on 42 Sliska Street, at Mom's sister's, Chana. Her daughter Stefa used to write in all official papers that her mother's name was Helena. My brother wrote the same thing in his book. But it isn't true, her name was Chana. Aunt Chana's husband, Jankiel Tygiel, was very traditional, he had a beard parted in the middle with two spikes and completely orthodox clothes: a black gabardine and a square hat with a tiny black peak, on holidays he would put on a black velvet capote with a string tied around his waist, not to mention a tallit whenever he went to a synagogue, he dressed himself as a Hasid. Aunt used to wear a wig and ran a religious house, but Aunt's children absolutely did not; they were not religious.

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