One year
The first-year anniversary of my parents’ accident – April 11 – came and went. I flew to Madison to be with Sandy, and we spent time talking and reminiscing about them with my parents’ minister before going to the cemetery that afternoon with our cousin Aimee. At the gravesite I read a letter Avery had written to my mom and dad and placed a stone that Zoe had sent from home.
Q and the girls, meanwhile, stayed home and lit yahrzeit candles. They had been planning to go to synagogue on Friday night, too, but Avery came home sick that day.
It makes me feel good that, despite my parents not being Jewish, we can use Jewish ways to honor them – and that my parents were likely the focus of the prayers and thoughts of people from many different faiths that day. It reminds me of just after their death – how I spoke with two rabbis and two ministers within 36 hours of the accident and how I received comfort from the words and prayers of each one of them. For me in those moments, and in all moments since then, religious differences just disappeared; all I was left with (and continue to feel) was love.
-M
