joannejagoda

Six Nights in Havana

Even my daughter, a seasoned traveler who had been to Cuba on her travels many years ago, was concerned about our planned Jewish Heritage tour to Havana. The news in the last weeks had been distressing with reports about severe food shortages and the dire conditions the Cubans had to deal with on a daily basis.

Grandma Stella, Summer 2008

The young woman in jeans ripped at both knees and purple dyed hair tenderly brushed
away strands on the comatose patient’s forehead and didn’t try to hold back her tears.

The Zephyr to Chicago

I’m sitting impatiently in the waiting room at the Emeryville train station on a fine spring day bobbling my leg and nibbling on a candy bar from the vending machine.

Ginny’s Window

Jeremy Pierce squirms on his cardboard “mattress,” pulling up the sleeping bag under his chin. The snores and moans of the other kids in the makeshift camp under the 880 freeway ripple the dark.