No Heroes: A Memoir of Coming Home

Preserving a Name

Arthur calls. Our conversations have stirred his memory.

“A girl went with my mother,” he says, “A friend of mine. She died with my parents. She wanted only to help my mother. She didn’t have to go but she went and she lost her life. She gave her life for my mother. I didn’t, she did. She’s supposed to be in the book, Sonny. How could I forget her?”

“You cant remember everything, Arthur.”

“There is an old Talmudic story. When God destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah, Abraham said, ‘You’re going to destroy the whole city?’ And God said, ‘Show me some good people and I won’t destroy the whole world.’ So Abraham found some and God didn’t destroy the world. That girl, she was one. An angel, Sonny, not a hero.”

“You want her in the book?”

“You think you can squeeze her in?”

“You bet.”

“She deserves to be. From now on I’m praying for her. Because of you and your book, I go back and back. I have more and more people to pray for. That’s all I want to tell you today.”

“Okay, Arthur. She’s in the book.”

“Some names should be preserved. Stella Goclow. Her father was a tie-maker. Very poor. They lived in two rooms. They always had something to eat when you visited their house. She was twenty-five when she… when it happened.”

“I got it, Arthur. She’s in. Her name is preserved.”

“Thank you, Sonny. Maybe all this talking is not so bad.”