We, Jews, do not bury or memorialize on the Sabbath, as it is a day of pause and rest, but luckily, we have the daytime prior to sundown to wrap up business. While Grandma Carol’s service took place at Temple Emanu-El on February 2, we had not officially laid her to rest until this day. Her husband, Jack Weinberger, was a Navy man and served our county in WWII. He passed in 1979 and did not have the opportunity to have his final resting place in an American National Cemetery. He is buried in the St. Thomas Cemetery, but as we live four miles from the National Cemetery in Sarasota, we applied to participate the spouse’s internment program. Rabbi Brenner Glickman officiated at the small private ceremony. Erin, our daughter, facetimed in and son, Jake, husband, Steve, brother-in-law, Mitch, Uncle Harold, Aunt Marilyn and I gathered to place her remains and further our closure of her death. Her name plate will honor Jack and his service. It was just right. “To every season, turn, turn, turn. There is a time to be born and a time to die” (The Book of Kohelet (Ecclesiastes): Chapter 3).

After that moment passed, our focus shifted to Shabbat planning.  Ken and Kala Sheckler both have February  birthdays, and instead of typical gifting, we simply prepared a Shabbat dinner and brought it to their home to celebrate. Steve had prepped “Humbug” seasoned corvina flakey fluffy fish, roasted potatoes, and cauliflower from our garden. I sautéed cabbage and prepped fresh tomatoes both also harvested from our garden. Karley, the Sheckler’s daughter, baked M&M cookies which we feasted on first as we had a backwards sort of dinner. While we completed cooking, Kala prepared martinis and we popped open the San Angel (2015) Pinto Grigio wine.

The table was set with all the props of Shabbat – a Publix challah, the candles, and the kiddish cup filled with Egervin Bull’s Blood (2012) wine. Blessings were recited, and the feast officially began. Kala had shared with us their recent South Carolina birthday celebration trip with her family, her root canal experience, and their very fancy restaurant outing.

I recanted my tooth story. I had flown to Wilkes-barre, PA for the opening of one of Erin’s college productions. My tooth had already begun to ache and so I was able to get an antibiotic prescription filled by the periodontist prior to take off. By the time I landed in Allentown, PA, drove the 1.5 hours to Wilkes-Barre, and settled into Erin’s apartment, the pain had intensified triple-fold. I decided not to take the antibiotic on the plane because of possible allergic reaction. Boy, am I glad I waited until I was on the ground and near a hospital because hives appeared everywhere including in my mouth and throat. I called Erin who was at a cast party, and with slurred speech from a swollen tongue, explained I was driving to the hospital located five miles away. I drove, parked and ran into the ER. I plopped down the prescription at the check-in desk, pointed to my tongue and throat, and the ER team immediately whisked me into an OR type room, stuck me with an IV and started the benedryl. That backfired as I was allergic to that as well and began going into anaphylaxis. Somehow, I was able to keep my mind stable by silently reciting the then 44 presidents in order while my body was freaking out. The next drug they pushed finally calmed the body down and the hives started retracting. In the meantime, Erin had been drinking at the party and had Juan, the designated driver, escort her to the ER. Let’s just say she sobered up quickly. The event resolved itself and Juan drove us back to her apartment where I passed out from all the drugs in my body and the trauma of an allergic reaction, so Erin spent the night with her buddies. The morning came and I was awaken by the banging noise on the adjacent wall. One of her roommates was busy with some random chic from the night before. I left the building and went jogging as I had a tremendous amount of energy to burn off. The toothache worsened and my periodontist was able to get a different non-allergic script to a local pharmacy so I could get on the next flight out. I was in the dentist’s chair at 7:00 am the next day and in surgery pronto for a tooth extraction. I have no idea what show Erin performed in that Shabbat. (LOL)

We shared some other quick stories, and retired into the family room where Ken shared his record collection with me. We played classics – Johnny Cash, Hank Williams and others. Then, it began…the selfies, but Kala had retrieved her selfie-stick. We plugged in and started clicking. We laughed so hard!

We packed a lot of living into this pause of a moment. We ate, drank, sang, danced, laughed, selfied, shared, and celebrated our friendship, the Sabbath and birthdays.

Shabbat Shalom