Blessings of a New Year and My Grandmother's Passing

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As the Jewish year comes to an end, I wanted to wish everyone a shana tova umesuka. 

Early this week, my beloved grandmother, Rebbetzin Hadassa Carlebach, passed away at age 99. 

If there’s one message I'd like to share from her life, it’s that you’re never old, and it’s never too late.

When she was 95, I mentioned to her that I met a 105-year-old woman who was dancing at a wedding. The woman’s daughter mentioned that her mom ate sauerkraut every day. When my grandmother heard this, she said immediately, “Ok, where can we get sauerkraut? How can we make it?” When my mother once asked my grandmother if she could take it easy on a fast day because the laws are lenient for the sick and the elderly, she asked, “Who’s elderly?!”

There are myriad stories, anecdotes, comments and beautiful experiences all of us relatives shared. She definitely loved life and lived it to the fullest.

I like how we say petira, meaning “leaving” this world instead of “dying.” My grandmother, and all those who have left this world, are not dead at all. They passed on to a different place, but their hearts, their love, remains in those in this world. And their lessons, messages, and life’s purpose, live on and on.

Fondly, and with lots and lots of blessings,

Nechama