Interesting Subject, My Great Grandmother was a bought bride. She lived in Lithuania and another family from the village immigrated to the US 8 years earlier. One of the sons, paid for the passage of my grandmother on the condition of her marrying him upon her arrival. Her parents discussed the arrangement with her, saying that she would live a better life than she had now. So my Great Grandmother agreed on one condition that she would somehow find a way to bring the 5 sisters over so they too could have a better life. When she left, her parents knew that they would never see her again, but they did write until they died.
Once my Grandmother arrived in the US, she didn’t marry the man she promised to, but rather she fell in love with his brother. It took them 5 years to pay the brother back for her passage, but she married for love. Unfortunately he didn’t live that long afterwards, and at 5 years old my Grandmother had to deal with all the funeral arrangement as an interpreter between her mother and undertaker because my Great Grandmother couldn’t speak English. That day forward my Great Grandmother swore that she would learn English and her son learned too so they wouldn’t have to rely on my Grandmother ever again.
She was a single mom, worked 18 hours a day, bought a 3 story apartment house and didn’t lose it during the depression, and never turned away anyone in need. She kept her word and brought all 5 sister over and they all married men they loved, like she did. The last sister came over when the mother passed so she did not die alone, but she also died a proud woman. She was popular in the village as all her children were successful Americans, and all sent her money to live.
While she didn’t have her daughters around her, she gave them a better life and made they all made her proud. And while I was only 5 when she died, I still remember while she was dying she kept saying Mama aš ateinu (Mama I am coming). I also remember that she had a rule, if someone in the room didn’t speak Lithuanian then everyone was suppose to speak English. But the old ladies of the neighborhood when my father would come in the room, would speak Lithuanian and point at him. It would make my Great grandmother mad, so she would tell me bad phrases in Lithuanian to tell the old ladies. Mom said that would always shut them up.
Things were so different back then, I look back over time and we would never survive half of what they went through.
