Rollene Waterman Saal

Cracks in the Ceiling Rollene Waterman Saal

My family's story begins just about at the turn of the twentieth century, when my grandfather, fair-haired, blue-eyed, escaped conscription into the army and came to America from Lithuania. My grandmother followed him months later and her story is one of being stranded, pregnant and alone in London's Petticoat Lane and how she made her way to reunite with her husband waiting for her in Massachusetts. That is a story that I would like to tell for her. What is it that seems important about the Plymouth past, about those families, that assortment of aunts and uncles, cousins and neighbors, that resonates as part of my own personal history while being a story that reaches deep into the American past? These people, their lives and all those who touched my youth are what link this memoir together. The memories are indelible.