Happy Mother’s Day

Happy Mother’s Day to my dear, beautiful, and special mom!

Even though it’s been 6 years since you passed over to Heaven, I can still see you here with me today. 

The love and caring you showed for me, my sister, and Dad as well as the grandchildren filled all of our lives. 

You always worked hard for the family and to do your best. 

Life was not always easy especially coming with your parents from the Holocaust. 

Yet, I never doubted for a moment that our family was the world for you.

And both you and Dad still mean the world to me and I know you both are with me always. 

I can feel it!

Happy Mother’s Day–we love you!  😉

(Credit Photo: Andy Blumenthal)

Magic Cream

Wow, this was incredible for my kids to find in the store…

Magic Skin Cream

My dad of blessed memory, when he was alive created a cream called, “Magic Cream.”

And it really was magic–he would put it on regularly to heal virtually any routine skin ailment. 

It used all natural ingredients and he carefully protected the secret formula.

To now see the magic cream in a major retail store left me really surprised. 

I wish that he had been able to bring his magic cream to market and that it would have been a huge success. 

IMHO, my dad deserved this achievement–he was brilliant and hardworking and most importantly, a super good person with tremendous faith in G-d and real integrity.  

I miss him dearly. 😉

(Credit Photo: My daughter Rebecca)

Adding A Very Special Facebook Friend

So this was really strange what happened to me before Yom Kippur. 

My parents passed away 5-6 years ago already.

I always miss them so much!

Somehow, on Facebook, my dad’s Facebook profile came up, which I was surprised to find. 

Looking at it, I saw under his friends was of course, my mom. 

I didn’t even know my mom had a Facebook page (I don’t think she ever really used it). 

But I was so curious, I clicked on her profile.  

I saw the prominent blue and white button to “Add Friend.”

And I saw my hand reaching to press for that button. 

I so wanted to reach out and be able to be with, see, communicate with her again. 

Then I stopped myself realizing that the friend request, unfortunately, couldn’t go to Heaven. 

If only it could…I would be so happy to press that button and have my mom hear from me again. 😉

(Photo of my dear parents from Florida)

A Good Father

I know it’s not Father’s Day yet, but I had a beautiful dream about my dad the other day that I wanted to share. 

In my dream, I was looking at this ledger.

And at the top of the ledger, it said:

“A Good Father”

I understand that good didn’t mean like good vs. great, but rather like good vs. evil in this universe. 

Beneath it, there were lists and lists of signatures of people who knew my dad. 

Their signatures were an attestation that he was not only a good dad, but a good and righteous person. 

I remember in the dream his presence was there with me as I looked at the ledger. 

Then there was an astoundingly bright light that I was basking in.

Now I could feel I was in the presence of the Master of the Universe. 

I looked up to the center and most intense part of the light, and lifted my arms upward in complete supplication to it…towards G-d.

And I felt myself crying out to G-d, and as I cried out louder and more intensely, I was transported back–whooshed through a tunnel at light speed…to awaken from this incredible dream.

Unlike most dreams, this one I remembered and it stuck with me even days later now. 

My dad was truly a great father and a great man!

I am grateful to Hashem for letting me see him this week, and I miss him greatly. 😉

(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)

Happy Father’s Day

So it’s Shabbat and that’s one of the wonderful times to look at old photos in the albums and boxes. 

Yes, this was before digital photography!

I came across this art that my daughters had given to my father and mother when they were still alive–I think it was plastered on their refrigerator for a while. 

This photo seemed to bridge the past, present, and future for me. 

My parents are gone now to Hashem–already 2 and 3 years–and I still can’t believe it. 

At the annual Mother’s Day and Father’s Day–it’s just another time of year to remember how much I miss them all year long. 

For me now, it is also a chance to be grateful for my lovely children that G-d has so gracefully blessed me and Dossy with. 

Smiles, hugs and kisses, love and caring for one another–this is what life is all about.

Father’s Day to me is not about the gratefulness of my children to me, but rather of me to Hashem and them to be blessed to be a dad and have the chance to give back to such lovely children–to the next generation that greatly supersedes me and mine!

So I’m crunched in the middle in time between wonderful parents and beautiful children and as my dad would joke, it skipped a generation (hopefully, not really). 😉 

(Source Photo: My Girls)

Visiting My Parents

We went to visit my parent’s graves yesterday. 

Now, between the Jewish high holy days of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, it is customary to visit and remember our blessed loved ones. 

We went to spend time with them, tell them how much we miss and love them, and how hard it is without them. 

I was so moved by how beautiful my daughters spoke out loud to my parents in heaven–their words and tears were so full of sincerity for how they miss and love their dear Oma and Opa. 

They could articulate what was so hard for me to say, but which weighs so heavy always on my heart. 

We sat on the ground at the base of their headstone feeling their presence and hearing their words in memory and through my wife who has a special ability to somehow reach them.

My wife told me how she could see my mother literally dancing in heaven, and my dad always worrying about us and looking out for and telling us to be more religious…always, more religious. 

I wiped the dust off that had settled on the stone over the last months, and wished that I could somehow magically, with whatever spiritual energy I could muster, raise them up and bring them back to us.

The thought of years or decades of going on and not being able to see and speak with them again, in person, is forever impossible for me to imagine. 

The loss of my parents over the last few years has left an emptiness in my heart and keeps me asking myself, will I really be able to see them and be reunited with them again some day in heaven. 

My daughter reassured me that energy, including our personal energy, never disappears, it only transforms, and my wife said that she could feel that they were okay and happy!

I recounted the joke my dad used to tell about not wanting to be buried at the edge of the cemetery, because that’s where the water runs down, and he didn’t want to get rheumatism. 

I know how much they loved us and I could feel it sitting at their graves with the warmth of the sun over us and the cool breeze blowing against us. 

I will live out my days, trying my best to emulate in my own way my father, who was a servant to the L-rd in all that he did, and who taught us strict right from wrong, and as my mother who took care of us no matter what challenges or suffering were faced. 

 

Finally, we asked for their forgiveness for any wrongs we committed and for their blessing for what is to come.

I am grateful to them and G-d for every blessed moment with my family and to experience the beauty and learning of the world, until it is my turn to be gathered to my family and the L-rd in the after. 😉

(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)

Homesick or Heresick

It’s funny, my dad used to tell a joke about not being homesick, but being heresick (wherever that “here” may be for somebody–they just want to get out of there)

Recently, at work though, I have found there are many people that don’t want to go home at the end of the day–and it’s not because they always still have so much work to do (although sometimes certainly they do). 

Yesterday, I asked someone at work–on New Years eve–what they were still doing there late in the day.

Someone with a fairly new baby at home, jokingly winced at me, and said something about it sometimes being better to stay a little later at work, because when he/she gets home, they start all over again with the spouse and kid(s)–like so many of us. 

It’s strange to me, because I love and value home. 

And it’s like the old rhetorical question about do you work to live or live to work. 

Just yesterday, in the Wall Street Journal, there was a book review about someone who opined about how home is where the heart is–and in anthropological terms–it’s always been that way!

Home is our sanctuary, for ourselves and our beloved family, it is where we are “king of the castle,” and where we do everything from shelter, comfort, reproduce, share, and generally love and care for each other. 

Yet, back to work, many people these days don’t want to go home to crying babies and dirty diapers, nagging spouses and the evening fights, encroachment on private spaces, and errands galore (it’s a 2nd job almost)–cooking, cleaning, shopping, laundry, and bills–or even just plain loneliness there. 

So people hang out at work–they schmooze, they snack, they Internet, they may go to workout, or they dilly and dally–just so they don’t have to go home. 

As someone recently said to me, “It’s quiet. I like it there. Nobody bothers me there.”

They are homesick–not missing and yearning to be home, but some almost to the point of sick at the thought of going home. 

Work or anywhere else then becomes a refuge from the home that home is supposed to be. 

Sometimes it’s just a temporary thing at home, sometimes it’s more ongoing or permanent.

Everyone has a different home–for everyone it should be a true home. 😉

(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)

A Being Of Light

So last night, I dreamed about my beloved dad. 

He was in synagogue praying–something he did every day.

I was telling my dad that it was time to go.

But he didn’t want to leave–synagogue was his favorite place to be close to G-d and his friends. 

My dad was in the front of the synagogue elevated on the steps before the Holy Ark (where the Torahs are kept).

I looked at my dad and somehow knew/felt that he was near death. 

I ran to him and threw my arms around him in an incredible completely loving hug–clutching on to him to stay with us, longer.

In this embrace, I could feel his total and undying love for me.

Now he no longer looked like my dad but like a being of light–such as I had never seen.

He had died, but was still somehow alive in another way. 

I miss my dad–he was a truly holy man (a Tzadik) and a loving husband, father, and grandfather, who would do anything for us. 

I wish I could sit and speak with him again, hold his hand, hear him sing when we came over, and see him smile. 

(Source Photo: here with attribution to Taltopia.com)

My Dad, My Hero

I can’t just call or visit my dad to wish him a happy Father’s Day.

My dad is in heaven. 

But I am thinking about him, missing him, and wishing all the things I want to tell him but no longer can.

I’m sorry dad for not listening better and arguing so much. 

Your lessons were not wasted on me, I remember them all!

The most important you taught me to serve G-d and do good no matter what the situation–that is with me every day.

And I know with your grandchildren too. 

You are my hero–I believe that G-d watched over you your whole life because of what a good decent human being and servant to him you always were. 

Dad, if you can hear me in Heaven, I love you and miss you and Mom dearly. 

I hope if you can see me and the family, you are proud.

That is what I always wanted. 

When you said it later in life, I almost couldn’t believe it. 

But I know in my heart, you are and and have been my biggest advocate. 

Thank you for everything–everyday–you never flinched no matter how much or inconvenient it was.

May G-d reward you and Mom in heaven and shower you in his eternal light, love, and goodness. 

You son, 

Andy

(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)

Mom Through The Years

My Nephew Naphtali Herbsman posted this on Facebook today and I love it!  

I miss my mom (A”H) and dad (A”H) and wish they were both still here in good health with us. 

But I know they are in heaven watching over us, guiding us, and still showering us with their love.