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Listening to Wilco in the car this morning, I thought about my grandmother, whom we called Safta (Hebrew for grandma) and who passed away Wednesday. During her intimate memorial service Friday morning, the rabbi recited a series of prayers, to which we were to respond "Safta, I remember you." It was beautiful and heartfelt and a lovely way of promising to keep a much-loved one's memory alive.
2005, thus far, has been an utter tornado of travel and emotion. After my return flight from L.A. last week was accidentally canceled and the airline subsequently "misplaced" my luggage, I wearily returned to my normal life for barely two days before packing up the car for the six-hour drive over snow-covered mountain roads to Reno, where my parents decided my grandmother should rest.
Despite the sad circumstances, it was an absolutely wonderful visit with my family, including my aunt and cousins who flew in from New York. What a treat to see them (especially since I've been so down about forfeiting my plans to head east for a cousin's wedding in February). We shared warm stories about Safta over a couple of amazing meals accompanied by an awesome array of wines chosen by my cousin Arik, the sommelier. Mom and Grandma cooked, Dad mixed the cocktails and provided warm background music (Ray Charles, Sam Cooke, et al), Arik made sure the wines were properly chilled. (For brunch as well as dinner. We're Jews, after all.)
It was like the very best of Thanksgivings, only there was rokkotcrumpli (Hungarian layered potatoes) instead of turkey and music instead of football. We ate, we drank, we hugged, we shmoozed. And later, there was poker.
Most importantly, we laughed more than we cried. I returned home exhausted, but less saddened by Safta's loss than inspired by her life. 91 years is a long time to grace this planet and Safta lived her nine decades as the picture of strength, warmth, humility, good humor and love, as evidenced by the warm, loving assembly of her family this weekend. Rest in peace, Safta.
Posted by ayelet at January 24, 2005 09:54 AM | TrackBackI'm sorry to hear about your grandmother...I remember when my grandfather died (at age 100) I was so surprised that our mourning didn't conform to what I had imagined mourning would be like. On the other hand, it is different when the person who has died has lived a long and full life, as he did and it sounds like your safta did.
Posted by: rhubarbpie at February 2, 2005 08:56 AMI'm glad she had such a warm and loving goodbye, and that you got to spend some quality time with your family. Though as they say, "next time over better things".
Posted by: jackie at January 24, 2005 07:16 PM