Life Can Be Cruel

So I was at the funeral of my Mom's first cousin today (i.e. my first cousin once removed). She passed away yesterday after collapsing from a heart attack. She had been having symptoms for a month leading up to yesterday, was told to see a cardiologist which she never did, had several of the risk factors, etc. but none of this is the point. Rivka was, in my brief encounters with her, a very sweet woman, very dedicated to her parents and kids, a proud grandmother, and as a fellow member of her moshav, Benaya, said today, 'Maleh anivut ve'tzniut' ('extremely humble/unassuming and modest').

What made me really sad was seeing my great aunt, Erzika (that's Hungarian in case you're wondering). Her husband passed away 10 months ago at the ripe old age of 90. Now she lost her only child. I noticed the tattooed number on her arm at the funeral. Also, I noticed on Dod Yaakov's (her late husband's) gravestone that his mother's name was Rivka too. So this daughter of theirs, their only child, has the namesake of her paternal grandmother who I imagine perished in the holocaust (actually my mom tells me she passed away before when Dod Yaakov was very young).

Instead of some sense of comfort in her old age, Doda (aunt) Erzika has had her husband of nearly 60 years and her only child pass away - and suddenly at that - in less than a year's time. It's more than anyone should have to bear. May she know only comfort from now on.