I wanted to say a few words about my Mom, but it's not easy to describe her in just a few words. Anybody who knew her knows how special she was. It's been moving to see how many people she has touched, How many have reached out to tell us how important she has been to them or just how special she was. Nurses at the Hematology department that cared for her, owners of the little grocery shop where we have shopped for years, leaders of the reform movement which she was so active in and of course friends and family. All used the same word "Special". And she was!
She was warm and loving. She was tough and unrelenting. She was a loving wife, mother, and grandmother and a career woman. A strong super-intelligent feminist and a beautiful woman who cared for herself and her appearance. She was a fighter but always respectful thoughtful, and caring.
If you didn't know her you may think that all of this made her a person of contradictions, but she wasn't! Somehow she managed to make it look like being all of those as once was just what a person was supposed to be. I guess that is what made her so special. A true role model.
The only good thing about her prolonged battle with cancer was that I ended up spending a lot of time sitting with her at her bedside and talking. An opportunity that could so easily have been missed in the hustle and bustle of life. I wanted to relate a few of the stories I heard from her.
Just last week she told me about her first steps in the professional world as a social worker in a Boston hospital geriatric ward. She and her colleagues were responsible for referring patients to care homes. Her colleagues were not very happy with her as she refused to accept any of the lavish gifts the care home owners were used to giving these social workers. I can say that thought my life I witnessed this care of doing what's right coupled with concern over מראית עין. She always took care to not even create an impression of impropriety. She specifically mentioned refusing a bottle of champagne from a care-home owner, although I doubt it was pink.
One of the most vivid memories is of her telling me about one of the things she was most proud of. She was proud of the instrumental role she played in securing the site on mount Hertzel for the Ethiopian community to commemorate those who died on the trip to Israel. I loved that as a woman who accomplished so much that is what she took pride in. She was of course extremely dedicated to the reform movement in general and in Israel especially and took pride in her work there, and in all the progress the movement has made, but I rarely heard her speak of personal accomplishments in that context. I guess I left out team player in my earlier description.
I know she loved me, as well as Kobi and my dad and all her grandchildren and all her family as well as her de facto sister Dalya. I loved her very much and will miss her sorely.
I hope I have made her proud, I am very proud to be her son.