Golden Age Member Spotlight: Sarah Traugut Gordon

At the age of nine, my father’s sudden death changed me from being a “rotten kid” to a “goody two shoes”! I was an only child born to Holocaust survivors. I never knew my grandparents or extended family. I was raised in a house purchased from the Segal family of Hamilton Jewelers.

My father was an ordained Shamash known as Reverend Michael Traugut; and he worked in Adath Israel on Bellevue Avenue until his passing in 1961. He had one of the biggest funerals in Trenton because he was adored and revered by so many people. He was always there for everyone; and he lived by the adage, “Where there is life, there is hope.”

I had an Orthodox upbringing and spoke fluent Yiddish. My father treated me like a “princess” and drove me back and forth to school four times a day. Perhaps he was so close to me because I replaced his two-year-old and four-year-old daughters killed in the Holocaust.

My mother, Celina, sheltered me and probably contributed to my being spoiled and a “rotten kid" in kindergarten where I received the worst report card ever! I threw tantrums and refused to go to school. When I went into a rage and vomited on the teacher, the principal exclaimed, “Rev. Traugut, take your child out of my school, and I never want to see her again!” He had to put me in a private Hebrew school.

Unfortunately, my father never lived to get “nachas” from me. After his death, I had to be the “best” student and become my mother’s “best” future.

In 5725 (1965), I won Adath’s Sadye Lewis Essay Award (engraved golden candle holders), I still display proudly. I continued Hebrew school in Adath but never had a “bat mitzvah” or “confirmation”.

I had to grow up quickly, and by the time I was in high school, I was negotiating the sale of our house. With merit scholarships, I went on to college to major in English Education and Library Science; I graduated “magna cum laude”. I had various positions: ASSISTANT FINANCE DIRECTOR; ASSISTANT MANAGER, DOCTOR’S OFFICE; AUTHOR; ENGLISH TEACHER; JEWELRY STORE OWNER; LIBRARIAN.

I went through suitors of quantity, but not quality. One became a “pest” in pursuing me even after he moved to Florida with his family. After Robert convinced me, we belonged together because he too lost his father at an early age, I answered his question of “Will you marry me?” with the response, “Oh, Okay!” As a dutiful child, I moved my mother, aunt, and uncle to Florida. Who does such a stupid thing? There was so much friction with the families that we had to move back to be a plane distance away. I joke that I did my retirement to Florida in my twenties!

I reside in Pennsylvania and have a son, daughter, and five grandchildren. I think my husband and I did a good job raising our children who are educated adults who stayed with their “raised” religions. They married educated professionals of opposite genders of the same races and religions. What more could parents ask for?

I now write children’s books based on true events that are funny and didactic. I present my published MICKEY HAS HIS UP AND DOWNS to elementary schools in New Jersey and Pennsylvania. I’m accompanied by the illustrator, my daughter; and my son, a Disney Radio personality who presents a musical reading program.

The recent passing of my husband (June) after forty-seven years of marriage has brought me back to Adath. As I navigate being a “turtle”, my hard shell in public and my inner soft elements falling apart in private, I look forward to meeting all my new friends in Golden Age.

(A special “shout out” to Marilyn Holtzman for enticing me to join Golden Age.)

https://www.sarahtraugutgordon.com/