Great Grandparents at Rockaway Beach

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There is a photo of my great grandparents, Sam Topal and Rhea Gallay, sitting in a hole in the sand on Rockaway Beach. They look like they are maybe 25 years old. Sam's arm is around Rhea but his brow is furrowed with what seems like worry. Rhea looks at ease and happy.

What was on the minds of these children of immigrants in working class Jewish Brooklyn? My grandma told me her father Sam had a difficult family life, and career difficulties too. Rhea had very close, loving parents, who my grandma remembers helped raise her, and she describes as the center of family life. Rhea was known for her warmth and caring. My only memory of her is her laughing as my cousin crab walked across her living room in her Brighton Beach apartment, as part of a game of charades. Nevertheless, her life cannot have been all easy.

I would like these young New Yorkers, trying to make a life together, to know across the generations that whatever they're worried about, whatever they struggle with, I care, even if I don't know exactly what it is. There is meaning in their struggle and in their lives. There has to be.

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