We just got word that Mom may receive the Pfizer Corona vaccine as early as next week! This is truly a Chanukah miracle. The closer we get to vaccinating Mom, and then the rest of us, the faster we can be in physical contact with her. No more masks, no more distancing. Just sweet hugs and kisses. There are so many questions still to be answered about the efficacy of this vaccine. Was it tested on older people? What percentage of the population may have bad reactions? Will it

It was a small moment of clarity in an otherwise uneventful video chat.

Mom took my cold hand in her palm and started rubbing it. “You’re so cold,” she said. “I just came in from outside,” I told her. I expected her to start singing a line from La Boheme about how “your tiny hand is frozen,” but instead, with our fingers lying next to each other, she counted them as if together they were one hand. “You’re my bubaleh,” she whispered. I wanted her back so much in that moment. In truth, and in retrospect, 2018 has been our hardest year yet in dealin

With the very first note, Mom was standing by the piano. As “Somewhere” from West Side Story took shape and became familiar, Mom started singing with such feeling, such strength, that it brought tears to my eyes. Here was the exuberant mother I was missing. I’d taken Mom to my friend Hannah’s house for a “concert.” Hannah teaches piano, and though Mom can’t learn music anymore, I wondered if she would enjoy singing along to songs and music that she knows. The answer was overw

There it is again. That small pause as I try to retrieve a word. Ah, ah, um, think. What letter does it start with? What are its associations? What does it sound like? It’s not there. I can’t get it. Can I create a sentence with an understandable alternative? Wait. Wait. I’ve got it. My whirling brain picks out the exact word I want. Did anyone notice that gap in our conversation? I know I don’t have Alzheimer’s. But I worry that I may one day succumb to it. I read an article

...or Beauty and the Bread Mom doesn’t remember the wedding. She doesn’t remember dancing with my new daughter-in-law or being photographed with her grandson the groom, or even swing dancing with her husband. These are the moments that shine in my memory. I will remember for her. In the weeks leading up to the wedding, it was kind of fun to tell Mom every time we met that Rafi was about to get married. I’d show her the invitation and we’d count the days. She’d ask me about hi