I used to ask my grandfather about his life when he was a boy: “Where did you live?”
“Vishki. You can remember Vishki. It rhymes with Whisky.”
He slurred whisky intentionally as whishky, like a drunk person might say it, as a joke. As if some overly gassed barfly was saying, “One more whishky, if you please, bartender!” as he passes out, head crashing on the bar.
— from the forthcoming book Remember Vishki
Remember Vishki is several stories, some of which happen in parallel.
It is the story of a place: Vishki, a small village in Latvia and the birth place of three people who will be important in my story:
William J. Dumes, my grandfather, was born in Vishki in 1902, and immigrated to America in 1912. His father Chaim died in 1904 and is buried in the Jewish Cemetery in Vishki, Latvia.
Tanya Dumesh was born in Vishki in 1919. During the war, she lived in the Ural Mountains in Russia and returned to Vishki in 1948 with her daughters Raisa and infant daughter Julya.
Leiser Dumesh was born in Vishki in 1930. During the war, he lived in Russia. After the war, his family returned to Latvia, but they lived in Riga.
Vishki is the nexus. It’s not just a place on the map; Vishki is like a genetic haplogroup that ties these three lives together, and binds together all the descendants of Vishki.
From my perspective, the story is an arc from me to cousin Julya.
Bruce Dumes 2024