Sem título #18

At lunch the other day I was chatting with an older friend about the 1945 movie A Brief Encounter. Here's the lovely story that ensued. A little background: my friend is an Israeli-American whose ancestors came to Israel from Russia.

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My grandparents met in an unconventional way. Their friends arranged a blind date for them, which was very unusual back then, my father was born on 1914, so this must have been around 1910, before the Bolshevik Revolution. I think they had both been dumped at some point, they were older and had probably lost hope. The only things they had in common were that they were both Jews and they were both dentists, which is not much in common if you think of spending a life together. They also met at a train station. When my grandmother saw him, she thought I am never gonna marry this guy... you see she was tall, he was short; I saw pictures of her from back then and she was very good looking, he wasn't; let's say her first impression was not that great. I never knew my grandfather's thoughts on the occasion, he was not that open about these things.

In spite all of this, my grandmother still decided to talk to him, perhaps more out of politeness than real interest. In order not to just stand there, they started walking up and down the platform as they waited for the train. My grandfather may not have been good looking, but he sure knew how to talk. After three rounds around the platform she actually changed her mind...
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As my friend and his descendants stand to witness, this was not just a (series of) brief encounter(s) on a Russian train platform a hundred years ago.