Haunted Simcha (Joyous Event)

This past Shabbat, as usual, I was the first one in the Ezrat Nashim, Ladies Section of our synagogue.  There was to be a Bar Mitzvah that morning.  I felt the Bar Mitzvah boy's mother there with me, looking happy and healthy, the way I remember her from the days we'd swim and take long walks together.

She died just over a year ago.  The Bar Mitzvah boy is her youngest child.

She stayed with me until her sisters came in; then I no longer felt her with me.  She had been waiting to sit with them and her daughters, who came in a bit later.  They sat in the front row, where my seat is.  The custom is to leave the front row for those celebrating special events.  After the prayers, I asked them to put my siddur (prayer book) in my box.  They apologized for taking my seat.  I insisted that I was happy to give it, because that way I felt like I had been part of the simcha.

L'ilui nishmata

May her soul be elevated