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Family Is All That Matters 118 was crushed, effectively ending his quest to escape to Palestine. Life in the West Life in the West In 1978, Yakov le Russia with his wife Alla Schpiner, whom he married in 1977 in Moscow, and their son Gregory. Yakov's Aunt Zhenya Braverman arranged with HIAS for Yakov to stop in France so that he could learn French while waiting for his visa to Canada. Yakov and his young family then moved to Toronto, where a iend had promised him a job. They settled there and had two more children, Aviva and Rebecca. Yakov eventually became the star employee of this company. A few years later, with his cousin Lev Volsun's help, his brother David also le Russia. David came with his wife, Alla Kuperman, whom he had married in 1976. The brothers oen joked about the fact that their wives had the same first name. He first went to Pittsburgh in 1980, where Lev lived, and worked for a company that was eventually taken over by a Japanese firm. David became senior manager of a large company and moved to Texas and then New York. Top: David, Moisey, Rosa, and Yakov Udler in Ungen, Moldova, 1950. Bottom: Yakov Udler and his son Greg in Moscow, 1978. Facing page: Rosa and Moisey Udler in Toronto, Canada, 2001. For the first time since they started a family, Rosa and Moisey could focus on each other. But their main goal was to be reunited as a family. "It was hard to let my children go, but Moisey and I believed we would follow them sometime later," Rosa says. Rosa and Moisey le Russia for good and settled in Toronto in September of 1987. Within two months of arriving, thanks to the efforts of the Jewish organization, Rosa and Moisey had their own apartment. They were active in the Jewish community of Toronto, where they lived for many years in good health until a combination of three events made conditions difficult. First, in 1986, Rosa was walking home om the grocery store with a sack of groceries in one arm and her one-year-old granddaughter Aviva in the other. At one point on the walk, she tripped on a broken piece of concrete on the sidewalk and fell. Rosa had the presence of mind to protect Aviva, who was not hurt, but the full impact of the accident broke Rosa's leg. The break was serious, and doctors were skeptical that the 65-year-old Rosa would be able to walk again. But her healing powers were miraculous, and she recovered almost fully. Twenty years later, Rosa walks only with a slight limp. The second difficult event was that Moisey was diagnosed with diabetes. Rosa blames herself for allowing her husband to indulge in a diet of junk food and bread. As a physician she felt she should have known better, and Rosa still cannot forgive herself for Moisey's disease. Over time his condition deteriorated, and on April 23, 1991, Moisey had a heart attack. It was all clearly too much for Rosa. While waiting for the ambulance to arrive, Rosa also had a heart attack. Both Rosa and Moisey ended up in the hospital, where Yakov and David took turns taking care of their parents. Moisey underwent open heart surgery while Rosa was also under the care of a doctor. Ultimately they both recovered and were sent home, but Moisey's strength was never the same.

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