Family Ties

Fay's condition continues to be fairly steady. In early September Margie and I took a vacation to Canada. We stopped by Courtland Gardens after we landed in Baltimore on September 8. Fay was getting her hair done when we arrived. The hair stylist at Courtland Gardens seems pretty good. Fay's hair looks more natural and is missing the trademark hairspray helmet that characterized her appearance for a long time. We had a couple of laughs with the hair lady and then went to Fay's room for a chat.

Since this was a weekday, we also got a visit from the nurse practitioner who takes care of Fay. She had some encouraging things to say. Fay was happy about the "good report."

We looked through the "Monthly Monitor," the monthly news letter of Courtland Gardens. One of the articles was about "Fun with Foods" on Rosh Hashanah.

There was a description of a custom to head symbolic foods that, often through puns, are connected to wishes that we have for the new year. The first time I had heard of this custom was when Misha's sister Julia brought a whole selection of foods to Wendy and Misha's house for a Rosh Hashana lunch. We had a good time sampling the foods and saying the customary petitions for our new year wishes. The article above gives a short explanation of this custom, as well as some modern, English-based, food wishes. For example, you can eat squash and say "may bad luck be squashed."

Another (maybe more) interesting family tie occurred on Saturday during my visit. There was a voice message on Fay's telephone from her great-niece Sherry Schucart, who lives in upstate New York. Sherry is Fay's sister's grand-daughter (yes, the same sister who shares the name of Fay's room mate, Rebecca Wolfe). I called Sherry back and let her talk to Fay. That was a rather unsatisfactory conversation. Fay said hello, Sherry said something, then Fay sat quietly for a few minutes and Sherry apparently hung up. I called her back. "Is Aunt Fay ok?" she asked. I explained the situation and Sherry and I caught up on some things. Sherry had heard that Fay had moved to Baltimore when my cousin Shelly (Rebecca Wolfe's son-in-law) called his niece Sherry to tell her that Fay's sister Mary had died. So Sherry called Fay to offer condolences. I think that message got lost in translation.

Sherry and her sisters are best remembered in our family for their visit to Wendy's bat mitzvah, 24 years ago. My cousin Evelyn and her husband and their 4 daughters and two sons-in-law all came to celebrate with us. Our recollection, confirmed by the photos, is that they topped the list of celebrants, dancing, laughing and having a good old time. Evelyn and her husband have sadly passed away and we have only very infrequent contact with their children. But we have that one event to remember sharing family celebrations.