A Pesach to Remember

It started out like other Pesachs, although with a bit more anxiety since we had moved into another home, trying to figure out seating arrangements for the almost 25 guests at each seder, and kashering and cooking in the new kitchen. However, the  backdrop of the terrible images coming out of Ukraine tempered any personal anxiety I was feeling. Once again, the reality of  being a refugee, and vacating one’s home in a hurry, was being played out hourly on the 24 hour news cycles.

First our granddaughter who we are in almost daily contact with was diagnosed with COVID two days before the first seder. Then our daughter – her mother – tested positive.  We had to let family and friends know. Half of our guests for the first seder canceled. Within 24 hours, most of our second seder canceled and later that day, my husband and I started feeling unwell. We canceled our second seder. By Sunday morning  on the second day,  both of us tested positive for COVID.

We spent the rest of Pesach in a pod with our three grandchildren and daughter, canceled our trip to NYC (our visit with our other grandchildren) and sequestered ourselves at home. Our COVID case, though not too bad, was not easily dismissed.

One lesson I learned from my 97 year old Mom, who loved to plan and look forward to family parties and events. When asked by her friends, “Sylvia, how can you plan so far ahead?” she quipped, “I plan. If I don’t show up, well I don’t.” 

All of this is another lesson, which we learned all too well when COVID gripped the country two years ago, that plans can go awry.  One lesson I learned from my 97 year old Mom, who loved to plan and look forward to family parties and events. When asked by her friends, “Sylvia, how can you plan so far ahead?” she quipped, “I plan. If I don’t show up, well I don’t.” So every Monday we at Chai Mitzvah  hold a Visioning Meeting, just to take the time to plan ahead.  We continue to plan and evolve … life compels us to think ahead but who knows what the future holds?