Sad email

My synagogue sends all sorts of notices via email:  the schedule of services, meetings such as Men's Club and Sisterhood, fundraising requests....

And whenever one of our members has a death in their family, we all get notified.

Usually, if it's not a family I know, I read the notice and move on.

Not this time.

I didn't know the family, but the name sounded familiar.

The notice said that a young woman had died, that she was survived by her parents and two of her siblings, and was predeceased by another sibling.

Took me a few minutes, and a bit of Googling, but then I remembered.

Her brother had died in a car crash at age 27, on Mother's Day in 2004.  The story had been mentioned in a newspaper article profiling our synagogue.


I don't know what killed the young woman -- accident?  disease?  It doesn't matter.  Parents aren't supposed to bury their children.

They've been coming to morning services to say Kaddish for their daughter.

I can't begin to imagine the grief those parents must be feeling right now.

To lose one child is unimaginable.

To lose two ...