It is now Monday
afternoon. We are sitting here, classical music playing, and it feels like the
first time in a very long time that we have had a quiet moment.
Barry’s flight on
Thursday evening had been delayed, so he did not arrive home until 1:30 am (yes,
you read that correctly, am), which everyone knows is far past our usual
bedtime. But he had to be up for a 6 am teleconference, a time which normally
works quite well for him and certainly works well for his European colleagues
on the call. So by Friday evening he was pretty much drained, but Ella is so
charming that he had no trouble staying awake through dinner. While we ate a
wonderful thick corn and vegetable soup, she had her usual macaroni and cheese,
which should more appropriately called cheese and macaroni given the ratios she
likes (you can be sure that her Sabba happily obliges). We played some games
and she showed us some of her schoolwork from the week and the next thing we
knew it was bedtime. We were up early Saturday morning for more games before
heading off to synagogue.
We had two couples
over for lunch, one of whom we knew when we lived in Sharon over twenty years
ago, and the other who we have had the pleasure of getting to know in the last
couple years. They, like us, are part-time Sharon residents. Although still
maintaining a home and jobs in the New York area, they bought a house in Sharon
to be near one of their daughters who lives there with her husband and three children
and is a close friend of our daughters. Barry tells me that the food was good
(I was the cook, so I cannot be a fair judge), but we had so much left over
that we were able to serve Sunday dinner to our entire crew with only a little
supplementation.
After Sabbath, Eliana
and Maya came over for a sleep-over while their parents went to a Sister Hazel concert
in Boston. Any younger readers may
appreciate this but, frankly, if not for Simmie and Ronen, who have enjoyed
their music for years, I doubt I would have ever heard of this band. So as I
started writing today, I figured I should check them out. They sound pretty
good! [Message to Simmie and Ronen: you have nothing to fear, Abba and I
promise not to try to go with you next time!]
We had fun with Eliana and Maya, who of course stayed up a bit later and woke up a bit earlier than they were supposed to, but what are grandparents for? We had breakfast and played some more before they went back to their house so we could all get ready for the next item on our agenda.
Simmie has for some years taught in the Hebrew School of one of the local synagogues, and a few of her former and present students had parts in a local production of The Wizard of Oz, so the ten of us went. It was quite an impressive production, with a number of really talented young people. It was during the intermission that we found out that the cowardly lion had been one of Simmie’s students, and he was really very good. I cannot even begin to imagine how much work, how many hours, went into this production which was only performed four times, but I am sure it was a very valuable experience for all the children and their families.
After the play, everyone headed over to our apartment for dinner. By the time they left and we cleaned up, we were pretty much exhausted! We even slept until 6:30 this morning, so we must have been tired.
As a closing thought, I wanted to share a report from the BBC that I happened to hear on the radio yesterday. This brought to mind a course that Barry has been teaching for a number of years now. It started back in 1996, when a radiation oncologist in Tel Aviv whom we had met initially through friends in Sharon, asked Barry to come and teach a week-long course in clinical radiation biology to radiation oncology residents in Israel. Barry taught that course quite a few times, about every three years. But then a few years ago the course broadened to serve about twenty radiation oncology programs in Middle Eastern countries and was moved to Istanbul, Turkey, where it now attracts a group of about 80 radiation oncologists from throughout the region. Barry has taught in Turkey twice; the third time he was supposed to teach was the spring of 2012 when I was undergoing treatment and everyone well understood why he was unable to travel. Hearing about the women traveling to Israel to ensure the birth of healthy babies reminded me of the training that Barry’s colleague has established. I have supplied a link to this heartwarming story here.
Have a good week!
Love,
Rebecca
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