Anna Remembers Meeting Family Members

• Anna Remembers Meeting Family Members

  
  

  Anna Zagar Klarich recalls seeing her mother and aunt, who immigrated years before she was able to join them from Yugoslavia at age 18 in 1920.

  Credit / Author:

  Ellis Island Oral History Collection

  Date created:

  1991-09-12

  Download Original File:

  elis-Ellis-Island-Oral-History-089-Klarich-First-Night-in-America.mp3
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Anna Remembers Meeting Family Members (Transcript)

Interviewee: Anna Zagar Klarich
Date of Birth: March 29, 1902
Date of Interview: September 12, 1991
Interviewer: Paul E. Sigrist, Jr.
Immigrated from Yugoslavia at Age 18 in 1920
Ellis Island Collection: EI-89

Anna Klarich:

Oh, I It was so beautiful to see her. Ten years I didn't see her. I mean, she looked different, and I was so grown up. I was only eight years old when she left and then I was eighteen. I was young lady. Well, I came and she was hugging me. We both cry. We all cry, you know. Then we said, we went to the dining room and they served us. I don't know what they serve us, the main meal, but the French bread and butter was so delicious because we didn't have much on the boat, you know. It was so good. And my aunt say, "You want some more," and I was ashamed to take another slice, but I said, "I like it." She said, "Just eat because," she said, "I know you didn't have that on the boat", so we did. So it was nice.
And then I came in my mother's apartment and she had lace curtains. We didn't have that in Europe. And I was just admiring these lace curtains. They were so beautiful, you know. And my mother said, "There are cookies in the kitchen. When you want, you just go and help yourself, you know." And then I said, "Oh, tomorrow morning when I'm going to get up I'm going to get those cookies." I got up six o'clock in the morning and she gave me her night gown, big night gown. I put it on, and then I went in the kitchen and I got myself four big cookies and I put them on my lap and I'm admiring the pictures on my mother's wall and those curtains just, they just fascinate me. And I'm eating my cookies and admiring, and my mother peeked in my bedroom and she said, "Oh, my God!" And I was so embarrassed that I had these cookies in my lap and eating that she told me to do it. And I was so hungry for cookies that I just, and she said, "Oh, how good". She said, "Don't be embarrassed. Just eat it and eat all you want."

Download Copy of Transcript: Klarich First Night in America Transcript