Safe and Sound

I open my eyes wide, trying to look both curious and stunned. Truth is, I’ve heard Buba tell this story before. And not just once. But it’s still one of my favorites. Robbers, guns, a safe full of jewels, and my very own Buba as the daring heroine!

I lean into the couch, wrapping my hands around the hot cup of tea. Buba’s emerald eyes are pensive. We’re sitting in her cozy apartment on Golders Green Road, but her mind is elsewhere, crossing the bridge over London’s winding North Circular. It’s a trip to around 50 years earlier, to one of her previous homes at 4 Green Lane, Hendon.

“It was a quiet Yom Tov morning. The men were in shul. I was busy downstairs when the doorbell rang. I opened the door, and the next thing I knew I was surrounded by men, some masked, one brandishing a gun. One of them seemed strangely familiar.

“‘I know you!’ I confronted him. Angrily, he propelled me toward the safe, which, surprisingly, he knew the exact location of, and ordered me to quickly open it.”