The Mikvah at EK

EK posted a really great essay about "sisterhood" and the mikvah. Here's your explanation of what I'm talking about.
It really is a club, certainly better than the sisterhood that my mother was active in which made the egg salad for kiddush.

We, the club members, all have funny stories... and moving stories.

Things were still pretty repressed in the days when I was a Kallah (bride.) I guess it didn't help that I wasn't raised in the world I now live. I went with a friend who was as uncomfortable about it as I was. Nobody else knew I was a bride.

In Israel, many of the mikvaot give gifts to the bride on her first visit and are willing to let the new bride come when it's otherwise closed. Years ago when we lived in Bayit V'Gan and we were still using the old mikvah at the beginning of the street, a woman served us all cake and schnapps in honor of the bride she had brought.