Ida & Julius

In 1899, Humphrey Bogart was born and William McKinley was President; the Boer War began and the Spanish-American War ended; the world sat on the cusp of a new century, and Ida Smigelsky and Julius Cantor were embarking on a new life together. Ida is seventeen on her wedding day. Her full curly hair is pulled up into a soft mound, exposing her ears, each pierced with a single pearl earring. Her Victorian dress covers her arms and her body all the way up to her neck, ending under the soft curve of her chin. The bodice is styled in pleats and lace, modest and formal. Although the photograph is sepia, I imagine the dress a soft pink, as feminine as the young woman who wears it. She is graceful, stylish in the manner of the belle epoch. A simple floral brooch with a stone at its center and one on each of its eight petals is pinned at her throat. Over her heart she wears another ornament, shaped like a fleur-de-lis, from which a round brass watch or locket hangs. Or is it silver? If I could open it, would I see her father’s timepiece, or perhaps a photograph of her beloved Julius? Ida’s face, partly in shadow, is serene. She looks just beyond the camera. Her eyes appear brown but perhaps they are blue, like those of her great-great-grandchildren.

Julius looks as dashing as Ida looks elegant. A dark pinstriped tie is knotted around his white starched collar, and tucked into a pale silk vest. A dark wool jacket completes his formal attire. His curly black hair is parted in the center, and like Ida he looks off beyond the camera. Do they see their lives ahead of them?

Old photographs hide color, disclosing only varying shades of brown. The photo conceals the vibrancy of life. It does not reveal that in 1893, Julius left the Polish city of Grodno, at 17, to come to America. If he had stayed, would he have become a merchant in that city’s vibrant Jewish community? Might he have been among the 29,000 Jews of Grodno murdered by the Germans between 1941 and 1943? But he did not stay. In America, he joined the army to learn English, and fought in the Spanish-American War. He met a distant cousin named Ida. In 1899, the year he begins his new life with Ida, the Treaty of Paris will be signed, ending the conflict between the U.S. and Spain.

Ida’s lips are full, and her expression is one of contentment. She leans toward her young husband, and their heads touch, gently. She is seated in front of him and his shoulder falls behind hers. I think they are holding hands. If the marriage has been arranged for them, they seem to be satisfied with the idea. The marriage lasted 57 years, ending when Ida died at the age of 74. On September 24, 1968, on the day his great-grandson Jonathan turned 7, Julius died at the age of 92.

Ida & Julius