“Penny From Heaven” Today I found a penny, Just laying on the ground. But it’s not just a penny, This little coin I’ve found. Found pennies come from heaven. That’s what my Grandpa told me. He said Angels toss them down. Oh, how I loved that story. He said when an Angel misses you, they…
Condolences are hard to write. You may not know how to say the “D” word. You may not want to upset your grieving friend. But you may be over-thinking it. When you’re paralyzed, pen in hand, the next time you have an empty sympathy card in front of you … I have a suggestion. A…
My friend lost two siblings in a few months’ time. He doesn’t want to talk about it, and I don’t blame him. We all process grief in our own ways. I remember from when my sister Kitty died, I really appreciated all the cards and letters I got from friends. It made the dark…
I got over to see Sig when I got a report that he was dying… but nobody knew what was going on, just that he was failing. I brought some Hamantaschen, which he ate with gusto. I helped set up his room, trying to restore some modicum of order into the chaos that is associated…
My thoughts about sympathy cards… When my sister Kitty passed away — after 7 years of a brutal fight with terminal cancer — it was the unexpected notes of sympathy that really helped get me through. High school friends, who’d known the “Gerards of Greer Road”, wrote their memories of Kitty. Colleagues from my work…
Joel Schmidt passed away a few weeks ago. I went to her Memorial Service today. I am very grateful I was able to see her on Christmas Day a few months ago — which also happens to be her birthday. Joel wrote me a lovely card after our holiday — thanking me for a sparkly…
I’ve always asked G-d to let me die in my sleep. It seems like the best way to go, given the choices of fire, water, air or illness. This week I’ve gotten the sad news that two people died this way …. both unexpectedyl. I wrote to my manicurist Chau to send my regrets…
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/08/nyregion/manson-whitlock-typewriter-repairman-dies-at-96.html Manson Whitlock was the world’s oldest typewriter repairman. I never even knew him. And yet I’m sad he’s gone. My friend Adam Silverman told me — from 30,000 feet up, while on airplane jetting back from New York. He saw the story in a New York Times magazine article in December. Manson Whitlock came…
Condolence letters are even harder to write than “Thank You” notes. People shy away from the “D” word. They don’t know what to say, how to start it, and our general ambivalence about death and dying gets played out even more when we try to write someone about how sad we are for their loss….
I’m simultaneously washing the dishes and watching an ABC documentary on “20/20” about the life of Nelson Mandela. They are talking about his early years and how he wasn’t able to be as closely tied as a father as he would have wanted to be because he wasn’t there — he was in prison. He…
