picking cherries

"July 1954. In the yard of our house in Brooklyn, I climbed to the top of the tree and sent down buckets of cherries to my two girls, Bernice and Helene. A neighbor boy called to Bernice to ask who was in the tree and could not believe it when she told him it was her mother. When I was a little girl, my grandmother had told me that money grew on trees in America. 'Buba,' I said, 'I'm good at climbing trees!' 'I know,' she said. I remembered that story whenever I picked cherries from that tree."

Embroidery and fabric collage, 1996.

32-11/16"W x 37-1/16"H.

Gallery narration by Esther's daughters.