I t was a nightmare within a nightmare.
The first nightmare: Her husband was missing in action. More than three weeks had passed since the telegram arrived three weeks of haunted misery. Yes she believed with all her heart that Abe was alive but if so where was he? Starving and tortured in a POW camp? It seemed the only possibility and it opened her imagination to images too horrible to contemplate.
Annie had forced herself to keep to her usual schedule and that included “nachas visits” to her in-laws. They had once been such a source of pleasure: she’d loved watching Bubbe’s face light up as Mutty gobbled down the spaghetti and meatballs she’d cooked especially for her great-grandson or Dora singing songs with the only child of her only child.
Now though they were especially painful. Her mother-in-law was a shell of her former self absently hugging Mutty but clearly thinking of the son she was convinced was dead and even Bubbe resilient optimistic Bubbe often shed tears.
