A shock

I ended my last post, just a few short days ago, with the words “We all need to laugh as much as we can.” Never could I have imagined just how prescient those words would be.

Although a message had gone out just a few hours after the end of Shabbat, I did not come downstairs and check my e-mail until mid-Sunday morning, and was shocked to see the following:

Bereavement Notice- Rebbetzin Annette Wolk z"l

With profound shock and deep sadness, we regret to inform you of the passing of our founding Rebbetzin, Rebbetzin Annette Wolk z"l, beloved wife of our Rabbi Emeritus Rabbi Howard Wolk, mother of Elie (Amy) Wolk, Michal (Rabbi Eric) Olshin, Yo (Lani) Wolk, Rabbi Akiva (Dr. Rachel) Wolk, Gavi (Talia) Wolk and Shimi Wolk, grandmother of Ruby, Sydney and Sammy Wolk and many other grandchildren and legendary Limmudei Kodesh teacher for decades at the Akiba/Yavneh Academy of Dallas

Note: z”l is the English shorthand for the Hebrew phrase זיכרונה לברכה , which means “may her memory be a blessing.”

At first glance, not quite absorbing what I had read, I assumed it was Rabbi Walk’s mother who had died, but then I quickly and shockingly realized that the announcement was about Rabbi Wolk’s wife.

I was able to get in touch with an old friend from our Dallas days to confirm this terrible event. Apparently, Annette z"l had died in her sleep on Friday night. She was staying at the home of a friend while Rabbi Wolk was in New York waiting to leave for Israel after Shabbat. I cannot even imagine the horror that the friends with whom she was spending the weekend must have felt when they awoke on Shabbat morning to find her gone.

As it is Jewish tradition to bury as quickly as possible, the funeral took place on Sunday. Fortunately, another friend sent me the link and we were able to watch as Rabbi Wolk and each of their children spoke about their wife and mother.

We spent our first five years as a married couple on the University of Rochester campus. From 1978-1980, Barry was a postdoctoral fellow at Brookhaven National Laboratory and we lived in Patchogue, a small town in eastern Long Island. During those years, Rabbi Wolk led the small orthodox synagogue in Patchogue. There were only a handful of young couples in the community, so we were all very close, and I remember spending quite a lot of time with Annette z"l and the rabbi, who lived in the same garden apartment complex as did we. After completing his postdoctoral fellowship, we moved to Dallas, Texas where Barry was an Assistant Professor at the University of Texas Health Science Center at Dallas. Just weeks before we left Dallas to move to Sharon in 1986, Rabbi Wolk called us to tell us he was coming to Dallas for an interview, and he was offered and took that post. He stayed there for some years before moving on to a position in West Hartford, Connecticut, but after a few years there he returned to Dallas and the Wolks made that their permanent home.

In my memories of Annette z”l, she was always smiling. I took a look at her Facebook page and found hundreds of pictures of her radiant smile. I have to believe that somewhere she is still smiling at her husband, children, and grandchildren and everyone who had the pleasure and honor of knowing her.

Her memory will be a blessing, as was the life she lived.

Love,

Rebecca