Esther Golman

Esther Golman was raised in the early Jewish immigrant neighborhood of North Dallas, which residents called Frogtown or Goose Valley. Her mother, whom neighbors relied upon, served the community in countless ways, acting almost as a doctor, midwife, and nurse. She pierced ears, performed makeshift vaccinations, and was one of the few women who could read, gathering the neighborhood women on the porch on Saturdays to read aloud from the Yiddish paper, the Forward. Esther described herself as a curious, people-loving child who accompanied her mother on errands of mercy, including helping prepare for childbirths in neighbors' homes when Dr. White was summoned by horse and wagon.

The heart of Esther's recollections was the Donsky family, whom she considered as close as blood kin. She remembered Gittel Donsky as the most religious and immaculate woman she ever knew, one who would not answer the telephone on the Sabbath and who read the Yiddish translation aloud to the women at the separate section of the shul. Jake Donsky she recalled as a plain, hardworking, and devoted father who delighted in entertaining all the neighborhood children with hayrides and outings in his wagon or truck, and who once brought a player piano for the whole community to enjoy. Esther slept over at their home to keep Gittel company when Jake was away peddling.

Esther herself began working young, earning two and a half dollars a week as a cash girl at A. Harris and Company before rising to become a buyer for two departments. She married about fifty-six or fifty-seven years before the interview, and her husband, whom she called Daddy, had been gone thirty-three years. She spoke lovingly of the Donsky children, including the mischievous identical twins Ruby and Harry, along with Lakey, Sarah, Frieda, Nathan, Lewis, Honey, Peshki, Ida, Lottie, and Irvin. To Esther, the enduring closeness of that family, and the values of faith, respect, and shared labor instilled by their parents, stood as the finest example of a life well lived.

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