Hesped* for Shira. . .
I have not been blogging, as it has been a difficult week. This past Tuesday, I suddenly received an Instant Message while at work, from my son in Jerusalem, savying that a friend's daughter, who had battled Hodgkin's Disease on and off for several years (it had just recurred, after having been in remission), had just died that day. She left a bereft young husband, and a toddler son who will now grow up without a mother. I had known her and her family since way before they made aliyah, over twelve years ago. Our kids grew up together in the same community, attended the same schools. It is a terrible loss to me--I burst into tears and was unable to concentrate on work that day--and to our whole community. I know nothing about Hodgekin's Lymphoma, except that I thought this was a more treatable type of cancer. I am devastated; I cannot fathom what her wonderful parents-my friends, who raised all their children to be good human beings and good Jews (Shira's brother a...