Not even a month?

It has been quite a month for us in Shiloh.

Just four weeks ago, I reported on a small local funeral, when the mother of a neighbor passed away. Then just a week later, another neighbor's mother died. When I went to visit her, she wondered about the saying that "bad things come in three's" and maybe we should "break an egg," a custom in many cultures to prevent a third tragedy.

I guess we didn't do it, because a couple of days later two sisters in the community lost their mother.

This coming Sunday is the "shloshim," thirty days after the death of the first "passing." In Judaism mourning is divided into certain "milestones." In short the first being the week of formal mourning, "shiva," then the "shloshim" and then the 12th month and full year. There is a gradual lessening of the Laws and Restrictions on the mourner for a parent until that first year is complete.

Sunday will also be the brit milah (circumcision ceremony) of a great-grandson born to the third mother to have passed away. And on Monday is the Bar Mitzvah of a grandson of the first one. Amazingly, the date was actually decided on before the grandmother's death.

I hate to write cliches, but life does go on.