Zadie's first yahrtzeit

One year ago, I was planning on flying down to Raleigh to meet with my boss to ask permission to come to Israel for the year. The night before I was supposed to go, my mother called from Israel to tell us that my grandfather had passed away. So I quickly changed my plans so I could come for the funeral. Last night we had a meal at my grandmother's house to commemorate the yahrtzeit which was very nice with a lot of family in attendance. My mother spoke really nicely as did my brother-in-law, Erick, my cousin Yoni and my cousin Stuart (actually he wasn't there so his father read it). Then today I went with a bunch of aunts, uncles and cousins to the cemetery followed by lunch at Cafe Rimon.

Just a couple notes about my grandfather who influenced me greatly during his lifetime. There are a few things that I always remembered about Zadie from when I was little boy:

• He was always on time to everything. He never made anyone wait for him and he expected others to have the same courtesy for him. If you told him you'd meet him at a certain time then you better be there then.
  
• He knew the stock market. As a kid, I didn't have a clue what it was but I knew that he was always following it and somehow making money doing it. He was always honest though in everything he did.
  
• Family was the most important thing to him. He had 23 grandchildren who lived all over the world and he was sure to spend lots of time with everyone. He rarely missed a family simcha and always tried to keep track of how many children everyone had. He was especially proud of the quantity and quality of his family. He kept count and I think that there were over 100 family members when he died (counting daughters, sons-in-law, grandchildren, grandchildren-in-law and great-grandchildren).
  

As I got older I discovered that there were actually many other parts of his life to admire. The main discovery about him that I made in the last few years was his willingness to learn and try new things. He had been trading on the stock market for years but when it became possible to trade online, he quickly learned how to use a computer. He sent a weekly email to the entire family and even used AIM to instant message with his children and grandchildren. He was in his late 80s when he was doing this! I also realized his love of Israel and Judaism. He made aliya just five weeks before he was niftar. These things were always there but they made a greater impact on me in the last few years as I really began to notice them.

I was lucky that he lived in Baltimore for a while just a couple years before he died so we got to spend time with him then. We also went to visit him in Chicago a couple weeks before he made aliya. I always tried to emulate him and I've missed him a lot during the last year. His neshama should have an aliya.

This is a picture from their 64th anniversary dinner in Baltimore a few years ago.