My
beloved
mother Andee
died today in Cape Town
South Africa.
She was 91.
I'll attempt to do the impossible: to express in very few
words
and symbols, the enormous impact her life had. Although what I'll
share
shows
how
who she is,
enriched my life in
ways
that even today continue to unfold and astonish me, I'm
clear
her
presence
was felt far and wide by many, many
people.
You'll find some items following these
words.
The first is a recording by one of her favorite guitarists
Luiz Bonfá
and his rendering of Sambolero. It is
authentic
from the vinyl. You can
hear
clicks, pops, and hisses
the way
she would have
listened
them.
Luiz Bonfá
was a prolific internationally renowned recording
artist.
Yet his
Brazilian Guitar album which
Mom
listened
was only made available for
South African
audiences. I've appended a
photograph
showing
the album sleeve. If you click it,
Sambolero
plays.
I've also appended the prosepoem by Max Ehrmann titled
Desiderata which those of you who had the good fortune
of
visiting
her
home,
will remember hanging on her hallway
wall.
She commissioned my
girlfriend
Wynnefred May "Wynne" Townell
who was a student at UCT (University of
Cape Town) Michaelis School of Fine
Art,
to caligraph it. Her
home
had large floor-to-ceiling bookcases
full
of books in which I
loved
to lose myself. She could
play
her vinyl "LP", CD, and reel-to-reel tape
collection
24 hours a day for a month or
more,
and never
play
the same piece twice.
The
photograph
of her to the left of this tribute, is the one that illustrates
an essay I wrote,
sharing
her generosity in allowing our
relationship
to be
complete.
There's
no greater gift
a
mother
can give a
child
than to generate the space for their
relationship
to be
complete.
The essay
is titled
Nothing But The
Truth.
You can read it by clicking
here.
Also appended is my
personal
statement as a prosepoem which I distributed to our living
family
(at least two hundred and sixty seven of us at last count) and
friends.
Mom
was
loved
by so many,
beginning
with her
parents
Benzion and Lena, her brother Norman and his wife Ady and his
children Bennett and Lisa and Margo, the
love
of her life
my father Asher "Poobie"
Manfred,
their daughter / my sister Anthea "Anth" Sarah and her daughter
Judith "Jüdchen" Marina and her husband Matthew and their
children
Noah Atreju and Arwen Hannah, their son / my brother Brandon "Bang"
David and his wife Lynne and their son David Asher,
my awesome children
who rock
my world
Alexandra "Girly Girl"
Lindsey
and
Christian "Big Guy"
Laurence
and
Joshua "Dad" Nelson,
and me. And I know many of you
loved
her deeply too. If I haven't explicitly named you, I thank you for
loving
her. I urge you to
celebrate
her life rather than be
saddened
by her passing. I'm
clear
it's what she wants. Really.
|