Zeh hayom asah Adonai, nagilah v'nismecha vo". "THIS is the day that God has made, let us celebrate and rejoice in it
My Mother’s English name was Beulah. On multiple levels, this puts her on the “B” list for baby naming opportunities. But everybody called her “Billie”. Her Hebrew name was “Bracha”, which, in Hebrew, means “blessing”.
Like her granddaughter and grandson-in-law, my mother loved music. We had a piano in our living room and she used to delight in playing and singing. She performed the lead role in a number of Jewish Center of Bayside Oaks musical performances. If you like, I can sing you a couple of stanzas.
When we were children, she would play a movement from Mozart’s Piano Sonata #11 – and we would whirl and dance across the living room like dervishes, then collapse on the floor. She would wait a couple of seconds and then start again. Alya and Nomi are probably thinking that this explains a lot.
Like Nomi and Keith, my mother loved children and children loved her.
She was a pre-school teacher for approximately 25 years and the beloved camp mother at camp K’far Masada in New York for many years.
I still remember children at camp following her around shouting with great delight: “Billy, Billy,”.
That memory came to life about 13 years ago when Nomi was a counselor at Camp Moshava. As we arrived for visiting day, we spied her coming towards us with children hanging on her arms and legs; all shouting “Nomi, Nomi”.
My mother’s life wasn’t always easy. She was 43 when my father died and she also lost a second husband to cancer. But she both sustained and was sustained by her family. Nothing gave her greater joy than her children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren. I wish she could have been with us today at the Simchat Bat of her 39th great-grandchild. Three more are on the way.
My mother lived in a time when families were closer – not necessarily emotionally closer but physically closer. She lived within walking distance of all her cousins and, in fact, one of her cousins live in her home. When I was growing up, we lived in driving distance of all of our cousins and we saw them every week.
It’s harder now. Jo, Jacob and I are in Atlanta. Alya and Esteban are in San Francisco. Nomi, Keith and Bina are in Baltimore. Nomi, Alya’s and Jacob’s cousins stretch from New York to Jerusalem. We have come to deeply appreciate Facetime and Skype, although it is not the same.
But Jo and I are so comforted that Nomi and Keith have such a wonderful family of friends here in Baltimore. Jo and I are so grateful to everybody here for taking such good care of Nomi, Keith and Bina. True friends are a wonderful Bracha.
Thank you all for being our extended family, for joining us today, and sharing this wonderful simcha.
