Posts Tagged ‘dying’

 I went to my aunt’s funeral yesterday.

My late mother’s last remaining sister and sibling.

It was very sad.  it affected me far more than I had thought it would

My aunt had lived in the States for all of my life, marrying a GI during the second world war.

Sadly he died but she married again and had one child, my cousin who is like a sister to me.

My aunt wanted to be buried back here in the UK with her other sister and my grandmother and so my cousin shipped her body back.

We’re Jewish and the amount of red tape involved, despite this having been arranged many years ago was incredible.

However it was finally all sorted out and my aunt was laid to rest yesterday right near her mother and sister.

After the actual burial, the Rabbi spoke and it was this that I want to tell you

It’s Passover in a short while and he talked about the plate, the symbolic plate, that we have at our first and second night ‘meals’ (it’s a wonderful get together of friends and family and prayers and songs and fun. 

So the Rabbi spoke about the symbolic plate which has on it amongst other things, an egg, bitter herbs, a sweet paste called charoset (made up of apples, wine, nuts, cinnamon).

He said that the plate was like the circle of life ; the egg symbolising birth and new beginnings, the bitter herbs could be death, or the trials and tribulations, the sadnesses and obstacles we have in our lives, and the charoset is the sweetness of people who visit us in our mourning and bring food and lightness with them.  It’s the laughter, the good times .

And so I wanted to share it with you, those of you who follow me, those of you who read me, to say that life is oh too short and we must live each day, really live it, be who we truly are, love a lot, laugh a lot and most importantly never regret.

We are all born and we all die – whatever comes in the middle is of our own making.

Live in the Now

Enjoy the sunshine

Make time for your kids, your family, your friends, for fun  - no amount of work is worth the missing a child’s first step or word, a joke shared with good friends.

Nobody ever lays on their deathbed wishing they’d worked more

Have wonderful day

Have a wonderful life – and please make each day count