MountainMornings

At cousin Sue’s funeral, the rabbi asked us to take a moment and quietly think of her. I bowed my head and closed my eyes, and I remembered a car ride.
Sue was Ada’s niece, which means she was her friend, her traveling companion, her touchstone, her daughter. It’s that way in Jewish families.
I first met Sue when I was a teenager. Like my older sister, she was the sophisticated single girl living the good life in NYC. Sue started off as a teacher, but she became a real estate mogul. Selling million dollar apartments that I could only dream about and then somewhere along the way, we became family.
She was wise and funny without that biting sense of sarcasm. She kept her friends close throughout the years and shared her business sense with her colleagues and family. Sue was a private person, who once asked me why I would write about my life and later couldn’t wait to read my blog.
But every year together for 35 years, she shared her Seder secrets with me.
We cooked or should I say we prepared for the holiday days in advance. Way in advance. She’d schlep tables and silver from Manhattan. She would always request my butternut squash casserole. She would taste test my harosis. Most things needed more salt but her gravlax was earth shattering.
I thought about my cousin Sue and the time we were driving to the Salvation Army together. We needed more water glasses for the Seder – Ada was seating over 40 people that year. We had a great talk in the car and I don’t even remember what it was about. We had never spent any time alone together we’d always been in the middle of a family circus; Seder dinner, happening at the beach, wedding, or funeral.
I wish we had more time Sue.