My Mother Told Me the Whole Story

In Yiddish: Mayn muter hot mir dertseylt di gantse geshikhte.

(January 2012)       

My mother was yanked out of school, which she loved, before she had finished the fifth grade. But she was a reader, so she educated herself. She read everything she could put her hands on, including the classics. She also sang while accompanying herself on the piano.

Along the seashore in Holland one day, he hears loud cries coming from the dike along the ocean. Investigating, he finds that the dike has broken. The villagers are trying desperately to save their village and farms.

Cold, hungry and exhausted from their effort, everyone goes to the local tavern, taking Faust along. Inside, after food and drink, they crowd around Faust to thank him, the stranger who endangered his life coming to their aid.

I have searched through various versions of the Faust legend without finding this one. Could my own mother have invented it?

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