I had an experience that is almost beshert-like in its meaning, yet has nothing to do with two people meeting.
I’ve been on a reading tear lately. It was spurred by my daughter’s college English 101 reading list. I remember reading some of the books on her list back in college, because I had to. Now I wanted to read them because I just wanted to.
In the middle of the books, though, a friend handed me a book by the late Chaim Shapiro called “Go My Son.” It is a an amazing account of how the author, a Polish refugee, survived for years in the countryside of the Soviet Union, living on collectives, small villages, work trains. It was just amazing to me how this yeshiva student could survive what he had to survive. But he was sent to the Soviet Union by his mother, hence the title of the book, “Go My Son.” She was afraid he’d perish in the Holocaust in Poland. So she sent on his own into the terrible world of WWII.
But then in the middle of reading this book, I was in the position of reading another book called “comeback,” by Claire and Mia Fontaine. The authors will actually be in town Sunday, Nov. 18, from 2-4:30 p.m. at Beth Tfiloh Dahan Community High School to speak about their book and to answer questions and lead small group discussions.
In their co-authored book, the mother and daughter write about Mia’s grueling recovery. She was sent at first to the Czech Republic and then later ended up in Montana. But she was away from home for some two years, fighting her “demons” in a way just like Chaim Shapiro did.
These two courageous mothers literally saved their children’s lives by sending them away so that they could survive.
The agents of death in Chaim’s life was anti-Semitism, a cold, frugal world where a daily ration was pretty much a small loaf of bread.
In Mia’s case, it was the street of heroin and “speed-ball” drug abuse, rape and the awful uphill struggle of recovery.
Two mothers, two children, two books.
I recommend them both.

When “Go, my Son” was first published, I read it more than once and marveled at the strength, inventiveness, and cumulative accomplishments of the author, Chaim Shapiro.  He started at age 17 because he had to.  It was inspiring, and remains so.  “Go, my son” is a book of not giving up despite horrible times.  It can tell us about ourselves: what we can do today and accomplish tomorrow, by dealing with today’s issues and then always moving on, with the help of Above.  A thrilling and inspiring read.