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 ...
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 ...
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