GIFTS THAT BIND by S. Nadja N Zajdman, amber-coloured tea with a twist of lemon

 

As soon as I grew out of them, which was soon, my daddy placed my baby booties on the rearview mirror of his car.  His cars would change over the course of the years, but I always think of Daddy’s car as a green Chevrolet whose back doors couldn’t open.  This was by design.  My brother and I had to climb through the front passenger door into the back seat.  This way, our parents were sure we wouldn’t fall out. 

Daddy considered my baby booties his good luck charm.  We came to think of them as a signpost.  In a crowded parking lot, we looked for what my little brother called, “Your shoes on the mirror.”

By the time I was twenty-five, these cloth booties began to fray, so Daddy took them to a shoemaker and had them bronzed.  However, on Montreal’s notorious potholed roads, the now-bronzed shoes would clang together, so, reluctantly, Daddy placed them in the glove compartment, which is where I found them when he died suddenly, two years later.  I keep them within sight, at my work station.  An image of them appears on the back cover of the memoir I wrote about Dad.  The front cover, which was enlarged to poster-size for my local library’s launch celebrating Jewish Heritage Month, features an image of  me in my daddy’s arms  with the original cloth booties protecting my tender and tiny feet .  I can’t fit my hand into the bronzed version, now.

I am older than my father was, when he died.  I am still astonished that I have lived almost my entire adult life without him.

about the author

 S. Nadja Zajdman is a Canadian author. She has published the story collections Bent Branches and The Memory Keeper, the memoirs I Want You To Be Free and Daddy's Remains, and the essay collection Between Worlds. 

Did you enjoy the story? Would you like to shout us a coffee? Half of what you pay goes to the author the other half goes to expenses e.g. Maintaining the web site and setting up The Best of Café Lit book each year.