Crossing Paths

After their retirement, my husband’s parents sang in a senior citizen choir, directed by a woman named Evelyn. As he diligently rehearsed the repertoire, my father-in-law lamented that Evelyn was a "tough taskmaster." My mother-in-law tirelessly scouted out their closets for the appropriate attire to wear at their concerts. She noted that Evelyn was adamant about their white tops with dark skirts or slacks.

When I saw a man with Evelyn’s uncommon family name featured on the front page of our newspaper, I quickly worked to find out if it was her son.  Indeed it was her youngest of four children, Michael. The article captured the array of his talents, touched upon his work of recording legacies, and highlighted the show he was performing in our area.  

Remembering that my brother-in-law once penned a piece about my father-in-law’s singing, I quickly went about finding his pamphlet of short stories, which my in-laws had saved. Now that my husband’s parents and their choral director Evelyn are long gone, it’s nice to have these memories reignited. I knew her son would agree.

To tell Michael that my husband and I planned to attend his performance, and ask that he save us seats, I sent off a quick email with the subject matter stating, “Evelyn Takiff was a name we heard often.” That was a sure way to get him to open the correspondence. In the body of the email, I wrote, “Hi Michael, Talk about legacies. I explain in the attached. Looking forward to seeing you perform on Saturday.”

My letter furthermore stated, “Your mother gave my in-laws, Hilda and Isadore (Is) Cohen years of joy, as they sang their hearts out under her respected tutelage. (Is, an Elizabeth native, 1911-1998, is interred with Hilda and their son Jeffrey at Gomel Chesed [the cemetery where the newspaper article showed Michael visiting the graves of his family members], along with many other members of our family). 

My brother-in-law Bryan Cohen wrote about his parents’ singing group. Part of Bryan's 1992 piece is attached (see below)."

I continued my note to Michael by adding, “My husband, Arnee Cohen, was a year behind your brother Howard at Hamilton [a public junior high school in Elizabeth] and Jefferson [the all-boys public high school in Elizabeth at that time]. He recalls that Howie played an instrument. Funny, the things that stick with you. Arnee grew up on Pennington Street, and I moved from Roselle to Cross Avenue in Elizabeth in 1965, when I was in 6th grade. Arnee and I met in 1969 and have been together ever since. I graduated from Battin [the all-girls public high school in my years in Elizabeth]. 

“Your website accentuated our similar backgrounds. If you go to sharonmarkcohen.com, you can read some of my pieces, which explore our mutual interests, and note my bio, ‘Sharon Mark Cohen, MPA, is a seasoned genealogist and journalist. A contributing writer at The Jewish Link, Sharon is a people person and born storyteller who feels that everyone is entitled to a legacy. Sharon was acknowledged by two authors in their recently published books and is looking forward to the publication of her family history book.’

“My literary agent has submitted my book to several mainstream publishing houses. It contains lots of talk about our Elizabeth, with words on Rabbi Teitz, Gomel Chesed, Warinanco, and more. Arnee and I plan to attend your performance in Maplewood on January 26. We look forward to meeting you and seeing you perform. Hopefully, we can speak for a bit after the show or arrange to speak soon after.” 

Michael did not disappoint. He single-handedly performed a stellar two-hour show. His act mimicked lots of the same elements of the life my husband and I lived in Elizabeth. We got to meet him as he approached us right after the show. When we returned home, I quickly sent off an email saying, “Good to meet you tonight, Michael. We enjoyed your performance enormously, which was fun, funny, thought-provoking, and visions of sugar-plums danced in our heads as we relived our parallel worlds growing up in Elizabeth.”

I suppose you had to be there. Like Michael, Arnee, and I hope that many, many others will see his performance of Jews, God, and History (Not Necessarily in That Order). In our humble opinion, the show is destined for Broadway. We will look forward to seeing it again.

I also know that I am eager for Michael to read and critique Kitchen Talk, my forthcoming book, which has a great deal about Elizabeth. Now that our paths have crossed, we’re able to move ahead and help one another tell about our Elizabeth. To get started, Michael will be a guest on my husband’s weekly radio show, The World of Work. Tune in Friday, March 22, 2019, to hear the interview by going to www.wdvrfm.org, at 4:00 PM EST. In the meantime, be sure to visit michaeltakiff.com.

Partial story quoted here by Bryan Cohen, 1992

Hilda Cohen 4th from right sitting; Is Cohen 4th from right standing…Evelyn Takiff, choral director, standing in center of front row