Stitching a Life

An Immigration Story

Mary Helen Fein

• Publisher: She Writes Press
• eBook ISBN:
  9781631526787
• Year: 2020

It’s 1900, and sixteen-year-old Helen comes alone in steerage across the Atlantic from a small village in Lithuania, fleeing terrible anti-Semitism and persecution. She arrives at Ellis Island, and finds a place to live in the colorful Lower East Side of New York. She quickly finds a job in the thriving garment industry and, like millions of others who are coming to America during this time, devotes herself to bringing the rest of her family to join her in the New World, refusing to rest until her family is safe in New York.

A few at a time, Helen’s family members arrive. Each goes to work with the same fervor she has and contributes everything to bringing over their remaining beloved family members in a chain of migration. Helen meanwhile, makes friends and—once the whole family is safe in New York—falls in love with a man who introduces her to a different New York—a New York of wonder, beauty, and possibility.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Preface
• 1 Panemunė, Lithuania: April, 1900
• 2 The Plan
• 3 Black Bread
• 4 The Letter
• 5 All That Must Be Left Behind
• 6 Overland Journey
• 7 SS Barbarossa: August 3, 1900
• 8 Ellis Island: August 8, 1900
• 9 The Lower East Side
• 10 Gefilte Fish
• 11 Stitches In Time
• 12 Katz’s Deli
• 13 Max
• 14 The Saving Years
• 15 Mama: October 29, 1902
• 16 Robert
• 17 Attraction
• 18 First Date
• 19 Staten Island Ferry
• 20 Coney Island
• 21 Worries
• 22 Dinner
• 23 Meeting Mrs. Fein
• 24 Katz’s Deli Reprise
• 25 Next Steps
• 26 Preparations
• 27 The Big Day
• Epilogue
• Acknowledgments
• About the Author