yartzeit

this is what I commented to: http://mozemen.blogspot.com/2005/01/good-yahrzeit.html

Of course a yartzeit can be "good." It's good to remember. Friends of ours (two friends, not typo) were killed over 30 years ago in the Yom Kippur War. We meet at the graves, friends, widow, children, mother, grandchildren, every year, and then we go to a friend's home in Jerusalem and talk and laugh and have a grand old time, like old times. The past few years, since I'm English teaching, it has been hard for me to attend, can't cancel classes in a proper school, so I've missed a few. But this year and last I've managed to get to the "wake," as I call it. and another new custom for me is to have dinner afterwards with one of our friends. Just us two ol' grannys. Very special. Yartzeits can be wonderful. We can't bring the dead back, but we can celebrate life.