Page 96 - news flash 1256

5 ‘’All travelers arriving to Quebec will be required to isolate
14 days in quarantine starting November 9th of 2021, until
further notice.’’
I read the new messages again to ensure I saw right.
We spent the past two weeks arranging who could
attend Simi’s wedding. The wedding was originally
planned to be in Montreal, though was changed to take
place in Boro Park due to evolving laws to protect the
citizens against Covid. Although we all would have loved
to be present, only U.S citizens could travel by land and in
addition to the extra expense, each classmate had their
own valid reasons to decline, and the options were slim.
Finally, after much back and forth, convincing one
another, 15 classmates booked a car excitedly to travel
back and forth and make it to the wedding!
Simi was psyched with the plan!
I read the text again, how could the regulations change
now, quarantine for 14 days?? There was no way I was
going to this wedding and let alone the others.
Within minutes, they all started calling, the wedding was
in a few days. What to do?
Simi called me in a panic. I tried calming her down. Yet, I
felt the nervousness in her, she knew what it entailed to
come.
As the days passed the confusion grew, and one by one
girls trickled out. There was no way we could spend two
weeks at home, with multiple checks from the RCMP.
It was Monday night, and the wedding was on
Wednesday, when the decision was clear.
How can we let Simi arrive at her
wedding with not even one
classmate there??
And so, regardless
of the threats,
rules and fear,
I managed to
convince two more
girls and drove to her
wedding!
The smile on Kallah’s face
when she saw us was priceless!
96
It was another meaningful afternoon visit to my dear elderly mother, 6
something I liked to do as often as
possible. With my teenage son by my side, I turned her wheelchair
into the dignified lobby of the old
age residence, and planted ourselves in a cozy corner; her
memories were fading, and we wanted to
interact with her and keep them from wilting, as one would want to
salvage a beautiful drooping
flower.
The gentleman a few feet away, also in a wheelchair, a new face,
struck up a friendly conversation. He
had many questions, about our roots, and also about my son: “What
are you studying now, what a nice
young man, giving your Oma such naches....”.
But what struck him the most, were my son’s tzitzit. He wheeled
himself closer, and lovingly touched the
tzitzit strands, saying that he had not owned a pair since his youth,
and would he even know how to
wear them again? His eyes became misty, and one could see that
these tzitzit had evoked emotions in
him that he had not felt in many years. He had a connection with
this four-cornered begged (garment),
and obviously memories he cherished.
Sometimes known for spontaneity, a.k.a impulsive ideas, the wheels
in my head started to turn. I
exchanged a glance with my son and said to him, in a whisper:
“I have a crazy idea. We don’t even know this
man, so I feel a bit awkward, and
‘out of my comfort zone’
but we can buy him a pair of tzitzit-
we won’t ask him- let’s just do it. We can
deliver it on a future visit.”
My son, being my son, was just as ready. It
just felt right.
In the end indeed, the friendly senior was
very touched with the gesture.
Sometimes getting over that bit of
trepidation, and just ‘going for it’,
to do something for someone
when it is least expected, is
extremely gratifying and worth
the effort. We do need to judge
each
situation carefully, but the
end-result satisfaction and
endorphins are a very welcome
by-product!