Dad ז"ל preached the message that we siblings would always be each other’s closest friends. Message received.

Beyond the verbal, we felt the strong bond between Dad and his brother, younger by eleven months. Even when they both suffered from Alzheimer’s, they didn’t forget each other. Dad would smile in the morning gazing in the mirror and thinking he saw his brother looking back at him. Before memory loss set in, almost all the stories our dad told included his younger brother. In most of the stories, his brother was the hero. In all stories they were the rascally duo who could get into creative trouble together. But, they never hesitated to argue with each other. Politically, they canceled each other out in every election after 1948. We had the model all our lives for a close sibling relationship with no holds barred.

Dad was partially deaf. So much was communicated through his gaze, his hugs, and holding our hands on walks.

Meryll:
My oldest friend whom I also met at Camp Ramah was Sandi Rosenberg Soffer ז"ל. Brash, creative, and hilarious (and also the same size), she was a friend from eighth grade until her untimely death in 2012. Sandi lived only an hour away from me in Dayton, Ohio so once we had our drivers’ licenses, there was no limit on how often we could get together. As members of Leaders Training Fellowship and United Synagogue Youth, we could count on at least one conclave per month where we could socialize, i.e. gossip. When Sandi became ill with a brain tumor, I was able to fly to New Jersey to see her every two months. She was privy to the beginnings of Jewish Luck and was not shy about expressing her opinions. Her matrushka collection arrayed in her guest bedroom inspired me each time I visited. I admit to shedding a lot of tears as I wrote about friendship in Sandi’s computer room while she slept in her bedroom across the hall. My closest friend was slipping away from me as I sat at her keyboard writing about Vera and Alisa’s friendship.