PASSOVER
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56 | APRIL 14 • 2022
p.m. and the baby wouldn’t eat.
[Nervous that I would be late
to meet up with Stan], I finally
figured out why the baby didn’t
want to eat. He was running a
fever. So, I told the parents and
they got mad at me, scream-
ing, ‘Get out! Go take out the
trash!’”
She continued with her plan
to meet Stan. Thankfully, he
waited.
When she finally got to his
car, she apologized for being
late and threw her stuff in the
trunk and hid in the back seat,
ready to hit the road. But then
the car wouldn’t start! She said
her heart began to race in panic,
thinking it was all over.
“If they would have seen me
… I would have never gotten
away,
” she said.
What felt like forever might
have only been seconds.
Finally, the car started, and she
screamed, “Go fast!” He asked
her where she wanted to go. “I
don’t care,
” she said. “Go fast,
and let’s go now!”
Soon, they got to the mall. As
it got later, Stan asked where he
should take her next because he
had to go back home. Anxious
and not knowing where to go,
my mom recalled having a
phone number in her pocket
from a kind Polish neighbor she
met in passing. We will call him
“Theo.
”
Theo gave her a phone num-
ber a while back when they
were moving out of the neigh-
borhood and said, “Someday
you’re going to need this. Call
me when you do.
”
She found a pay phone and
begged a stranger for some
change to make the call that
ultimately helped save her life.
Theo knew exactly who it was
and said, “Where are you? And
who’s with you? Let me talk to
them.
”
Theo and Stan spoke to each
other in Polish. After he hung
up the phone, Stan said he
was going to take her to Theo’s
house.
THE TRANSITION
As we get ready retell the story
of Passover each year, we always
feel so incredibly connected
to the Israelite’s Exodus from
Egypt. We feel like God had a
hand in leading my mom to her
freedom.
With the help of Stan
and Theo, and after several
transitions through families
throughout Metro Detroit, my
mom was finally able to make
contact with her family in the
Philippines by mail, letting
them know she was safe.
She eventually found a stable
home with an Orthodox Jewish
family in Oak Park. We will call
them the “Yocheved” family.
The Yocheveds gave my mom
sanctuary as a live-in nanny.
They also taught her what it
meant to keep a Jewish home,
all while encouraging her to go
out, live her life and meet new
people.
For the first time, my mom
says, she felt like a free woman.
Not long after, she met and
began dating her future hus-
band — my father, Ben, an
electrical engineering student
at Michigan State University.
Home from school over the
summer, he would meet up
with friends after work at a park
in Oak Park. He noticed my
mom, who had made friends
with some of the kids in the
group. My dad said he was
immediately attracted to her,
saying that her smile was “like
sunshine.
”
STUCK IN CANADA
One day, the Yocheved family
took my mom on an outing to
Boblo Island, not realizing that
it was in Canada. On their way
“THAT NIGHT, BEN’S FAMILY WELCOMED
ME IN THEIR HOME TO CELEBRATE
PASSOVER. AFTER EVERYTHING THAT HAD
HAPPENED … THINKING BACK ON HOW I
GOT THERE, IT WAS A LOT.”
— REMY SWEET
The Sweet siblings all smiles at
Rachel’s bat mitzvah ceremony:
Jeremy, Amanda, Isaac and Rachel.
continued on page 58