Chapter Fifty-Six

Sunday 4th August

Tell Me On A Sunday

"Hello?"

"Hello."

"Who is this?"

"I don't know if you remember me, my name's Harry Cunningham. I was your neighbour up until a couple of months ago."

"Harry Cunningham, of course I know who you are!" Mrs Finkelstein laughed. "There are things I don't remember so well nowadays, but you've not been gone that long. The old place isn't the same without you. You and Jorge leaving at the same time have left a void. It's not often you find someone who has the time for an old lady and I had you and Jorge. It's really not the same now."

"How's the new neighbour."

"I don't see her much; I think she works shifts at the hospital. I've been away too."

"Somewhere nice?" Harry asked.

"Oh, all over. You haven't rung me to ask about my vacation so what is it you want?" She said brusquely.

"Nikki and I would like to invite you to our wedding," Harry explained. "I know you probably won't feel like flying over to England, and we would pay for your fare but we both feel that without you we might not have made it this far. We'd like you to come if you can. Nikki doesn't have any family and mine's not big, we wondered if you'd like to join us?"

"Ah Mazel Tov!" Mrs Finkelstein exclaimed. "I knew you two were made for each other. I'm glad you were able to work things out. That girl has seen great sadness in her life but still has the capacity to love. It is so rare to meet someone like that and I recognised it immediately that night we spent together."

"Thanks," said Harry.

"So when are you planning this wedding?"

"We think it will be in December. Jorge is doing some concerts in London in the run up to err the run up to …"

"Christmas?" Mrs Finkelstein suggested.

"Yes," Harry replied sheepishly.

"So Jorge has agreed to go!"

"Yes he has!"

"It would be nice to see him again. Such a charming young man, is his friend coming too?"

"Yes, Beto will be there too."

There was a long pause. Harry hadn't really expected the old lady to show more than mild interest in his news. It wasn't as if they had really spent much time together.

"Well it's very interesting you say it's December, because I'm due in London in December too."

"You're coming to London?"

"Yes, I have to do some interviews. I don't suppose you've heard of the station or the interviewer. I'm only going to be on the radio. I think they called in Radio 4, it didn't sound very important. I'm talking to someone called James Naughtie."

"You're going to be on the Today Programme?" Harry gasped.

"Yes, I think that's what my grandson said it was called. He was trying to organise some other things. Something else with a number, now what was it? The One Show, could that be it? Sounds like a lunch time show. Nothing important."

There was a long silence.

"Harry are you still there?" Mrs Finkelstein asked. "Has the line gone?"

"You are doing the One Show and the Today Programme?" He stuttered incredulously.

"And a few book signings…"

"In London, this December?"

"Yes, you seem to be making this more complicated than it is. I'm sure I would be able to pop into your wedding, my grandson has made the schedule quite open so I don't get too tired. It should be him doing all the interviews really, he wrote the book. You might have to invite him too."

Harry coughed and tried to fit everything Mrs Finkelstein had said, into some kind of order. But she started talking again.

"Did you meet my grandson? He used to come and stay with me sometimes. I can't remember if the two of you met."

"He used to sleep on the spare bed you lent me when Nikki came to visit!"

"That's the one, he always used to tease me that I was the one living in New York as all writer's should, and he was the one living in Boca Raton, which is full of retired people. He used to come up and visit me and to see his agent. He's got quite well known recently but not for this kind of book. I think that's why there's all this hoohah about this new one and we're flying half way round the world to promote it."

"This book he's written, is it about you?"

"Yes, didn't I say that? I am getting a little forgetful in my old age. It's about my experiences as a Holocaust survivor. All these years I've spent quietly campaigning for justice and peace and going about unobserved and now in the last years of my life I've been flying round the country giving interviews and telling strangers about my experiences, when for the rest of my life many of my closest friends didn't even know.

Finally Harry's brain began to fill in the dots. It had been something Nikki had said weeks ago in the pub. It was all beginning to make sense.

"Your grandson; he's not Ben Stein is he?" Harry asked realising as he did so he was holding his breath.

"His real name is Benjamin Yehudah Finkelstein, but they told him thriller writers had to have punchy short names that fitted in big letters across the front of the book, so he uses the first bit and the last bit as his pen name."

"Your grandson is Ben Stein?"

"I was sure I'd introduced the two of you…"

"You want him to come to the wedding with you?"

"I don't want to put you out Harry, will you have room for one more?"

"Mrs Finkelstein, we would be delighted for you and Ben to come, do you know what dates you're in London?"

"We arrive on the 4th; I'm doing the Today thing on the 6th."

"So you could fit us in at the weekend?"

"Or the one after. I like to keep Shabbos though."

"So nothing on Saturday?"

"No, will that be a problem?"

"A wedding on a Sunday!" exclaimed Harry a smile forming on his face. It would be perfect for their non-traditional ceremony. "About one o'clock suit you?" Harry asked; an even bigger smile on his face.

"Any time on Sunday will do, Harry. It's very kind of you to think of me. I'll give you my grandson's number it will be probably be best to talk directly to him. I'll call him now and let him know who you are. Have you got a pen?"

Harry dutifully wrote down the number. He couldn't wait to tell Nikki about this.

"Thanks so much Harry. And mazel tov again."

"Thanks, Mrs Finkelstein."

"Call me Gerda, after this book came out, everyone else does now."

"Thanks Gerda, I'll look forward to seeing you soon."

"Good bye Harry."


Also with a bit of inspiration from the Gerda Weissmann Klein, she received the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President Obama in 2011 for her lifelong campaign for human rights. Her book published in 1957 'All But My Life,' is an autobiographical account of her experiences of the Holocaust.

Now 89, President Obama read a statement from Klein at the award ceremony: "I pray you never stand at any crossroads in your own lives, but if you do, if the darkness seems so total, if you think there is no way out, remember, never ever give up."

She certainly seems to be in Mrs Finkelstein's mould, I only found out about her as I researched a possible first name for Mrs F. Didn't think she could really turn up at the wedding without a first name!

Also as an observant Jew, Mrs F. would observe the Sabbath (Shabbos) from sundown on Friday to sundown on Saturday, hence no partying on a Saturday, or answering the phone from the previous chapter.

Tell me on a Sunday: Lloyd Webber and Black (it's a sad song but fear not, no more angst for you my lovelies)