In Loving Memory of Grandma
My grandmother's father, lovingly known as “Pa Fink,” was on his deathbed in Scranton, PA. It was June of 1965, Grandma was in NY, and got the call to come to Scranton right away. The doctors did not think he would hang in there, but he did. The nurses said that he was waiting for Grandma, his youngest daughter, to arrive. When Grandma arrived, he opened his eyes for the last time, smiled, took Grandma’s hand and then passed away.
Over 50 years later, in 2018, Grandma, the last surviving family member of her generation, passed away. It was the end of an era. As long as she was alive, the legacy of her parents lived on. Her parents had lived in a small shtetl in Poland and came to the USA in 1922, moving to Taylor, PA, a small mining town near Scranton. They were the only Shomer Shabbos (Shabbat observant) family in their town, and remained that way as they raised their five children.
In 2004, when Grandpa passed away, his yahrtzeit (the Hebrew date of his passing) was the exact same date as his father’s yahrtzeit. Perhaps this was a message that he had continued and now had finally closed the circle of the legacy of his parents: to proudly and successfully transplant and transmit the family traditions and legacy from Russia to the USA.
Grandma too ensured the continuity and survival of her family traditions and legacy from Poland to Taylor, PA and beyond. Neither Grandma nor Grandpa were extremely knowledgeable of all facets of Jewish law, but they were fiercely loyal to those traditions of which they were aware - those that they received from their parents.
The Talmud teaches us that when a baby is in its mother’s womb, G-d sends a guardian angel to teach that baby all of the Torah wisdom that this baby will need during its lifetime to fulfill its life’s mission. When a person passes away, it is said that the same angel comes to escort him to his final journey, to attest to whether or not that person indeed fulfilled their life’s mission.
I have no doubt that Grandma has made her angel quite proud.
May she continue to advocate from on high on behalf of the over 100 descendants that she leaves behind, and may G-d grant us the strength and the wisdom to continue in her ways and to always honor and continue her legacy and to make her proud!
Shabbat Shalom,
Rabbi Koval
