GREAT READS → FAMILY DIARY Issue 866 · June 23, 2021

The Good Hostess

This time, when Yehudis hung up, I didn’t have that heavy-hearted feeling. It felt more like hope

The Good Hostess

Shani Leiman with Zivia Reischer

Yehudis was 32. I’d known her for years, suggested a few boys for her. But every time I spoke to her, I hung up with a heavy heart.

It wasn’t that she didn’t really want to get married — she really, really did want to. And it wasn’t that she didn’t want to be flexible. In fact, she constantly asserted how flexible she was. But I couldn’t shake the feeling that she was stuck in an unproductive mindset. And she’d been stuck for so long, she couldn’t even see it.

This phone call was different.

“My younger sister just came back from seminary,” Yehudis said. “I’m in shock.”

I winced. Yehudis had several younger brothers — most of whom were long married — but this was her only sister.

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