[Fredslist] Aunt Esta died on Friday. She was 100 years old.

[Bambe Levine]

Wow, what a moving story about a family who could be role models for all of
us.  Thanks Joel for sharing this moving story of your family.

We love you, 

Bambe Levine


On 12/12/10 12:40 AM, "Joel Schnur" <joel at schnurassociates.com> wrote:

> Dear Along the Network:
>  
> At 8:45, this past Friday morning, my cell phone rang and Caller ID showed
> that my Aunt Martha was calling and I immediately knew that was not a good
> sign. ³Joel, I have bad news. The nursing home called to tell me that Aunt
> Esta passed away about an hour ago. The funeral home is making arrangements
> for a graveside service but can you take care of getting a minyan (quorum of
> 10 adult males necessary for certain prayers to be said)together at the
> cemetery?² 
>  
> I was then struck with the logistics. Jewish tradition calls for burying  the
> deceased within less than 24 hours. Aunt Esta was a widow with no children.
> Candle lighting for the Sabbath was at 4:09 and the funeral was for 11:30, in
> New Jersey. Everyone was already at work or on their way by the time I would
> start to call them. Amazingly, of my 200+ cousins, their spouses, children and
> grandchildren, about 183 of us are still Orthodox Jews and that is with us
> being anywhere from 4th to 7th generation Americans. And that¹s just on my
> mother¹s side!
>  
> Talk about Tribes, well our family is pretty close. Against her wishes, we had
> moved Aunt Esta out of her East Flatbush apartment decades ago when the crime
> rate soared and she went into a building in Brighton Beach owed by one of the
> cousins. Same for Aunt Lee, age 96, who lives in Flatbush. Both paid little to
> no rent because we take care of our own even when they can¹t afford it. Since
> I also live in South Brooklyn, I would usually be the one designated to pick
> them up and drop them for a family wedding or bar mitzvah. It was always
> informative to hear them tell stories about the past even when they argued
> about whose memory of events was more accurate. When one of the cousins¹
> children gets married and wants to start off living in NYC, there is always an
> apartment for them and at a reduced rent. One of the cousins recently needed
> some extra financial help to marry off a child because the other side was
> insisting on a fancier wedding, so we all pitched in.
>  
> This was no different. The oldest living member of the Tribe would get the
> full family treatment. I accompanied the body to the cemetery-considered a big
> honor-and at the graveside I watched as seven cars drove up disgorging family
> members from Brooklyn, Queens, Nassau, Rockland, Bergen and Monmouth Counties
> all dropping whatever had been on their schedules on the shortest Friday of
> the year to pay their last respects to one of our own. We buried her next to
> Uncle Abe and still made it back home with an hour and a half before Shabbos.
> We will be dividing up the reciting of the Mourner¹s Kaddish during the next
> year.
>  
> My grandmother had 19 pregnancies, 15 live births but only 9 children who
> lived to adulthood. Many children commonly from all ethnic backgrounds died at
> the turn of the last century of pneumonia and other childhood illnesses. Aunt
> Dinah, age 98, Aunt Ruth, age 89, Aunt Martha, age 92 and Uncle Murray, age
> 86, are all that are left from that generation. We thank G-d that we are still
> able to show them the respect they deserve, share happy occasions with them an
> shower them with love. And we do that because not only because we were brought
> up that way but we also want our children to know what family is all about
> especially when our turn comes.
>  
> Goodbye Aunt Esta. You had a pretty good run!
>  
> All the best, all of the time, to all of you.
>  
> Joel
>  
> ___________________________
> Joel Schnur
> Senior VP
> Government Affairs/Public Relations
> Schnur Associates, Inc.
> 1350 Avenue of the Americas
> Suite 1200
> New York, NY 10019
>  
> Tel. 212-489-0600 x204
> Fax. 212-489-0203
> joel at schnurassociates.com
> www.schnurassociates.com <http://www.schnurassociates.com/>
>  
> 
> 
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