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Rickshaw Flower Girl

and asked Ms. Adler's
for her phone number
to discuss the story of
her flower girl role. She
replied with her phone
number immediately,
and the story was rela-
tively simple.
In our conversation,
Ms. Adler explained
that there were few chil-
dren in the area of the
district in which they
lived, and the bridal
couple simply asked her
parents, Lizzi and Kurt
The flower girl, standing in the rickshaw
Adler, if their daughter
bout a week ago, I received
would be the flower girl.
a message and was involved
Ms. Adler was not aware that the
in a coincidence that makes photo was published on the cover of
the phrase "it's a small world" a major my book until recently when a friend
understatement.
showed her the book. She
In March 2005,1 pub-
looked at the cover and
lished a book, Shanghai
shouted, "My God, that's
Remembered, an anthology
me:'
of 24 first-person stories
But that is not the end
of Jews who escaped from
of this "it's a small world"
Nazi Europe — as my par-
incident.
ents did with me at nine
I then called Susan
months old in 1939 — to
Gerson in Palm Springs,
Shanghai.
Calif. Indeed, she con-
In collecting the stories
firmed that they asked the
as well as documents,
Adlers to permit their little
I came across a photo-
girl, then four, to be the
graph— among oth-
flower girl at their wedding
ers— of a bride, Susan
in November 1944.
Segalowicz, 21, in her gown, and her
The two families had businesses
fiance, Theodore Gerson, in a rick-
adjacent to each other, but were not
shaw on the way to their wedding.
close friends, she said.
Running behind schedule, they
Now, fast-forward some 30 years
took the rickshaw because their taxi
from the wedding. Mrs. Gerson said
was late given the gasoline shortage
she did not see the Adlers again until
in 1944. The publisher, Momentum
1975 when the Adlers, now also living
Books, and I immediately agreed the
in Palm Springs, approached her and
photo was ideal for the cover of the
reminded her that their daughter was
book.
the flower girl at her wedding.
Standing in the rickshaw is a small
When I interviewed Mrs. Gerson
girl whom, at the time of my research for the book, she said, given that
and writing, I did not ask about.
her family's standard of living was
Looking back, it was a journalistic
substantially better than that of most
oversight.
refugees, her wedding was "like a
As I checked my e-mail on Feb.
movie:'
25, I had a message identified as
Despite all its creativity, Hollywood
one from Yvonne Adler, Los Angeles.
would never have been able to create
Usually, I delete all messages from
this kind of an ending. If it had, no
people or institutions that I don't
one would have believed it.
know, but I opened this one — fortu-
nately —and it said: "I am the flower Berl Falbaum is an author and Farmington
girl in that photo."
Hills public relations executive who
Suffice it to say, I was surprised
teaches journalism part-time at Wayne
and broke out with sentimental goose State University, Detroit. He's a former
bumps. I immediately responded
political reporter.

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