I always dreaded the day that I would have to say good by to my last living parent, my mom, Sylvia Wolf. My mom was a classic pianist at the age of eight years ago, she hated her special made baby grand piano so much that she sold it to one of her girl friends. my grand father was so mad that he wouldn’t speak to her for a couple of months.
One of her earliest adventures occurred in her home town of Hegewisch, lIlinois on a rainy day. A black limousine stopped and a man addressed my mom and her girlfriend and offered her ride home. Mom’s friend said we do not take rides from strangers, but took the man’s offer, why not she did not want to get her red coat wet. As the limo dropped off the two little girls in front of my grand father’s This stranger made it known to all the “Hegwischians” that he does not hurt little girls, of course his name was Al Capone.
Why wouldn’t mom hitch a ride with a know mobster, since her cousin, “Uncle Bernard” was the one and only Bugsy Siegel. Mom often talked about attending Northwestern University and the Conservatory of music, her profession was that of the Chicago’s greatest Shoe Saleswoman. Starting at a no longer in existence department store, GoldBlatts, Jack O’Day’s(Marquette Park) and later, her final shoe palace, Saks Fifth Avenue on Chicago’s Magnificant Mile on Michigan Avenue. It was at Saks that she made her reputation as a Hall of Famer for her craft. I was envious of her greatness, her salary challenged many of College professors. She won many awards and certainly put a smile on Salvatore Feragamo’s face.
Even though it broke my heart when my mom divorced my father Jack Silvers when I was a teenager, I knew she needed a partner that was more educated. Her marriage to Morton E. Wolf, a University of Chicago attendant. It was until I attended mom’s memorial service that I realized that her second marriage provided me with the much needed foundation for coping with her death.
As the Rabbi, (Norman Lewison-a family member) recited a prayer and recollected that even though my mom was not an actual member of the family, she was the one who kept everyone together. There were many testimonials, and the many thanks you given for the thousands of blankets that my mom knitted for her many charities,( The Center for Battered Women Center in Chicago, The Sisters and Residents of Misericordia, Illinois.). The letters were of sympathy were cited and it was my turn to sum up my almost seven decades as her child in five minutes, I rambled on, broke into tears and realized that the 1950D Jefferson Nickel that I need to complete my Jefferson collection was not just found in Mom’s change as she said but the realization was that she just purchased it to make me happy as the other thousand of people she made happy. She was an every day Santa Claus. Thank you MOM, I will always miss you.