Memories
For my parents 60th wedding anniversary, I painted this in the style of Chagall. It incorporates elements from my parents’ lives — their wedding photo, my mother’s candlesticks, flowers and wine goblet. We had a big family celebration at their home. That was around 2014.
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It’s a good thing we got the family together to celebrate that. Because the following years would bring little to celebrate. First my mother’s death, and then my father’s.
Along with that, the restrictions of the pandemic. I visited my father in November 2019, after my mother died. He was living in the apartment with his caretaker. His eyes were failing so badly he couldn’t read, and he was bored. He wanted me to read aloud from a Hebrew book he was in the middle of, and I did my best. That was the last visit we had before he passed away.
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I want to post here some of the words I said at the shiva services for my mother:
-- Many times I would sit with Mom, drinking coffee, in the kitchen or on the mirpeset (balcony). Those were my favorite times with her, just talking, together, being friends. I felt we were friends, especially as we grew older. Even when I was younger, in high school, I liked being with her and talking about things.
-- My mother was smart and capable. She was, I think, the strongest person I knew in my life. She was also nurturing, taking care of all of us through illnesses over the years, and being there for Dad.
— When I was a child, she taught me to put birdseed out for the cardinals and chickadees. Through her eyes, I saw the birds, the flowers, and all the living things and learned how to take care of them to help them thrive. She also encouraged me to draw, and bought me supplies, fostering a hobby that I might not have discovered or pursued without her help.
-- When I was very sick and had to have surgery, in 2003, Mom and Dad came from Israel to stay with me in Texas and take care of me. They did this even though they were getting old and it was a difficult trip. While they were here, they met Sheldon. Sheldon and I had just started dating. Mom and Dad were so welcoming to Shel. They made me feel cherished, coming all that way to help me when I needed them.
-- She lived a long and full life, fulfilling many dreams. She loved her youngest grandchildren and they brought her great joy in her later years. She would tell stories about clever and funny things they said, and her eyes always lit up just thinking about them. Living near her youngest son and grandchildren, among her friends and cousins, was very good for her.
