My Wish - 9th Yahrtziet

A number of weeks ago, I was driving home from hockey. My usual music was playing and the Rascal Flatts song 'My Wish' came on. As I drove along the dark, boring road of highway 6, my thoughts wondered to a conversation I had with a friend, on the morning of Rachel's funeral. As I was trying to put together a eulogy, I shared how Rachel connected to  music and how this song, felt like her leaving a last message for me. In the end some of the lyrics made it into the eulogy.

 

  

As I carefully listened, it struck me that every single word still has deep meaning. It almost provides a map of how to interact with the past, present and future. It provides a good commentary of how I have put my life back together, after her loss. 

Channah recently had a project for school on the Aliyah experience. She wanted to show the girls in her grade how far off their perception is. Channah and I spent a long time going through the blog together to help her jog her memory. It was very interesting as she shared her experience from her point of view, as a little kid, versus that adult issues that were beyond what any child needs to worry about. 

As I sit here thinking about the song, I think of how the message was for how to raise Channah as well. Channah is Directing her school play. When Rachel was her age, she was directing The Wizard of Oz for a shul play. We also had hopes and expectations of what Channah would do upon completing high school. With our full support, Channah has chosen a different path because that is what is best for her. 

I am proud of Channah. I know Rachel would be too. I believe I took the message she left behind and applied it appropriately. I hope that is enough to allow her Neshama to have an Aliyah.

Government Office Adventure - Kiryat Yam

Every Israeli has experienced how ridiculous the bureaucracy is in this country.  My experience has improved a lot in the last 12 years. Any trip to a Government office always runs the risk of needing to come back and possibly other tasks that need to be completed in the interim.

As it has been a number of years, it was time for Peri and I to go on a Government Office Adventure. Shlomo will be going to school in Kiryat Yam (2 km from our home) next year. As the school is outside of the Haifa municipal boundaries we need to get authorization and pay an extra fee for Shlomo to have permission to attend the school. Our task was simple. We already had the document giving us permission to transfer from the City of Haifa. We just needed to bring the document to the Kiryat Yam office, pay for the transfer and bring the forms back to the school.

The first task was locating the Kiryat Yam City Hall. I knew approximately where it was. As I parked next to the Mayor's car. I was pretty confident that we were in the right area.  As we walked there we realized there were two possible buildings of where the office was. One building had a sign 'Municipality of Kiryat Yam' and the other said 'Library'.  The obvious answer was to head to the library. However, the building was locked. So, we went back to the other building. The guard sent us back to the first building with some very unclear instructions of exactly where we needed to be. 

There was a small office next to the entrance to the library office. We eventually were able to get someone's attention to help guide us. They unlocked the door for us, told us to go upstairs and find what we needed from there. We found the right person on the first shot. It turned out the transfer fee was also cheaper than we were originally quoted. She gave us the documents we needed. We had to take the documents and pay the fee at the water office. In order to get to the water office, we had to walk out the door we came in, then circle the building. The entrance was on the opposite side. 

By the time we got to the water office, it was just after 12:00. They closed at 12:00. Peri played dumb and they allowed her to enter to take care of the bill. They made me wait outside. 

A few minutes later, we were back to at the entrance to the locked building. As per instructions, we knocked on the door and the administrator assisting us met us. She went and photocopied some ID, while we waited at the bottom of the stairs.  Peri was concerned that we were still missing a document. In the end the administrator contacted the secretary of the school directly. She told us that she would work directly with the secretary to make sure everything was in order. We would not need to take the documents to the school. 

We started our mission treating it as an adventure. That way, we didn't get frustrated or stressed with any of the road blocks we knew we would encounter. It took us less than half an hour to get everything in order.  In the end, the level of service was excellent.