Ralph Webster > Quotes

“Nothing about these times makes any sense. Nothing. Putting it to words only makes it sound too simple.”
― Ralph Webster, A Smile in One Eye: a Tear in the Other

“I can tell you that events were incremental, that the unbelievable became the believable and, ultimately, the normal.”
― Ralph Webster, A Smile in One Eye: a Tear in the Other

“Visit me before I die. We can enjoy one another's company. A funeral is a rather one-sided affair.”
― Ralph Webster

“I've made my peace. He will always be part of me. I don't need to watch him die. I am just glad I was able to watch him live.”
― Ralph Webster, A Smile in One Eye: a Tear in the Other

“I thought those were others. Soon, I was to learn that they were us.”
― Ralph Webster, A Smile in One Eye: a Tear in the Other

“Is there a magical time when children become parents to their parents?”
― Ralph Webster, A Smile in One Eye: a Tear in the Other

“a leap-year child, born on February 29, he often boasted he was one-quarter of his age. I remember my twenty-first birthday. That year, despite his eighty-four years, he claimed we were both exactly the same age.”
― Ralph Webster, The Other Mrs. Samson

“small earthquake that shook us that day. It was my new brother, the scrawniest and cryingest baby I had ever seen. Until then, Mama always told me that I was the apple of Papa’s eye. That day, I learned another of life’s many difficult lessons. The apple would need to be shared.”
― Ralph Webster, The Other Mrs. Samson

“affairs did not prevent him from acquiring a fount of knowledge and education that stamped him as a man of culture to an unusual degree.”
― Ralph Webster, The Other Mrs. Samson

“wait until you have a child. You will be confused, too. There will be times when you never know for certain what you want for your children. Mostly you hope that they will remain healthy and find happiness.”
― Ralph Webster, The Other Mrs. Samson

“Oh, what fun, Oh, what fun, To be in the class of naughty-one.”
― Ralph Webster, The Other Mrs. Samson

“think Mama was right when she told me that much depends upon who you marry. As long as we marry within the Jewish faith, we should respect those who choose to practice and observe in different ways.”
― Ralph Webster, The Other Mrs. Samson

“Random footsteps might have brought us together, but Josef had stolen my heart.”
― Ralph Webster, The Other Mrs. Samson

“rewarded for their hard work. The women would wait. If we were sent for, we would follow. That is why I was not surprised when Opa told me he was leaving. Mäuschen, before sunrise the very next morning, Opa had left.”
― Ralph Webster, The Other Mrs. Samson

“jump, hoping that your feet will go far and land on solid ground.”
― Ralph Webster, The Other Mrs. Samson

“consider New York City or even San Francisco in relation to the rest of America. The people of Berlin viewed life in their own distinct terms and curious outrageous manner. Berliners took pride in being different from the rest of Central Europe.”
― Ralph Webster, The Other Mrs. Samson

“together for nearly three decades, a tradition that had begun in 1942 after they had fled the war in Europe and formed their friendship in America. Their dinners had become a time to celebrate successes,”
― Ralph Webster, The Other Mrs. Samson

“roster, a matrikel, a registration certificate costing enormous sums, more than most had. Even then, before a marriage could actually take place, the man had to prove that he could earn a living, that he was engaged in a respectable trade or profession, but of course, this was hardly possible. We had no choice but to live by the rules set by others.”
― Ralph Webster, The Other Mrs. Samson

“but Mama always claimed that our family had some small part in that early Jewish history in San Francisco.”
― Ralph Webster, The Other Mrs. Samson

“Since Mama was a Meyer and Papa a Samson, it stands to reason that I am a blend of the two families and the personalities of my parents, but I will leave that for others to judge. Aunt Hattie liked to tell me that I was the thread that wove the two families together. Then she would look directly at me, and we would both laugh when she would say, “And you, Hilda? When they made you, they put the thread through a needle that you have managed to stick into both of their sides.”
― Ralph Webster, The Other Mrs. Samson

“I can’t recite the chronology or elaborate on the facts. I can’t explain the reasons or defend how we lived our lives. What I can tell you is how the events of 1933 sowed the seeds that fundamentally changed our future, that there was little hand-wringing or emotion, that circumstances were beyond control, that there was no recourse or appeal. I can tell you that events were incremental, that the unbelievable became the believable and, ultimately, the normal.”
― Ralph Webster, A Smile in One Eye: a Tear in the Other

“won’t always get your way. You know that life has disappointments and you should not be confused by what others expect. There will come a time when the right person asks you to follow. And when you are asked, you will know what your heart tells you. You will not be confused. You will know what you should do.”
― Ralph Webster, The Other Mrs. Samson

“In New York, Papa attended to his business on Wall Street while Mama and I went out to lunch and spent our afternoons visiting all the big department stores on the Ladies Mile.”
― Ralph Webster, The Other Mrs. Samson

“One moment, you can be happy, and the next moment, you are not. I believe that disappointment is a reflection of desire: the more you want something or someone, the greater the disappointment when your expectations are crushed.”
― Ralph Webster, The Other Mrs. Samson

“Uncle Daniel may have died a very wealthy man, one of the wealthiest of his generation, but what I liked best was the description I read several days after his death: “His busy life as a banker and man of affairs”
― Ralph Webster, The Other Mrs. Samson

“Our Jewishness was in our blood. The men in our family would lead, and when they said it was time, the women would follow. No amount of tears would change these things. This was the way life was meant to be.”
― Ralph Webster, The Other Mrs. Samson

“we boarded the Etruria for the crossing to England. Mama said the ship reminded her of a fancy hotel with all its modern luxuries.”
― Ralph Webster, The Other Mrs. Samson

“a strong drive to succeed. Oma once told me that the men never seemed to suffer from loneliness. They never had time. They were all too driven and industrious to be lonely.”
― Ralph Webster, The Other Mrs. Samson

“I can’t recite the chronology or elaborate on the facts. I can’t explain the reasons or defend how we lived our lives. What I can tell you is how the events of 1933 sowed the seeds that fundamentally changed our future, that there was little hand-wringing or emotion, that circumstances were beyond control, that there was no recourse or appeal. I can tell you that events were incremental, that the unbelievable became the believable and, ultimately, the normal.

Ralph Webster, A Smile in One Eye: a Tear in the Other”
― Ralph Webster, A Smile in One Eye: a Tear in the Other

“Aunt Clara something of a wallflower, a shrinking violet often eclipsed by the spirited nature of her younger sister, my grandmother Oma.”
― Ralph Webster, The Other Mrs. Samson