My Best Friend - by Sharon
Dear Mum, dear best friend!
I call you that, because that's what we were. Best friends. Not just mother and daughter. Best friends.
We laughed together, danced together, sang together and sometimes we cried together. That's what best friends do. And we were best friends
You were always there for me when I needed you and I tried to always be there for you, when you needed me.
And now you're gone, and I feel so alone. I know you are finally at peace, but I miss you so much. The last three years were so hard, seeing you become a pale shadow of the warm, loving, happy person you once were.
I couldn't face the memories of the "old" you, so I blocked them out. And I'm so sorry for that. Please forgive me.
I promise that I will never forget you. You are in my heart, and you will always be in my heart. In all our hearts.
Gina the Queen - by Steve
Mum was born Regina Schama. She always hated the name Regina and refused to go by any name but Gina, even to her grandchildren.
Regina means queen, a title mum was much too humble to adopt and it was her humility that stood out and endeared her to almost every person she met.
Mum bore a magical quality that overcame all boundaries - her smile and her easy going approach to people. Whether it was the girl in the supermarket, Rafi the owner of the kiosk downstairs, or one of the receptionists in the hotels where her groups stayed when she worked as a tourist representative for Peltours, no-one stood indifferent.
When asked her age she always replied 38, but when caught sitting on the floor, in the middle of the lounge, surrounded by grandchildren, deep into a game of monopoly, speed or 7 card poker, you could swear she was still in her early teens.
My early childhood memories include her simultaneously pushing a pushchair with baby Sharon, holding young Jonathan Paul's hand, chatting with me and reading a book, all of us cheerfully on our way back home from mum's favorite place, the local library. Mum was a reader, a trait, one of many, that I have happily inherited from her. She would read anywhere and everywhere, while cooking, ironing or walking, resulting in over cooked food, singed school shirts and several odd collisions with innocent bystanders on her route back and forth to town.
Mum was a marvelous mother, but then I was royally bribed being the only boy at the Hasmonean Grammar School to arrive each day with chopped liver or egg and onion sandwiches.
So what was her secret? She cared. While going through the picture albums during the shiva I came upon a photo from Michal, my eldest daughter's Bat Mitzvah. In the picture three generations are gathered together to salute Michal in song. Each member of the family is holding a piece of paper with the words of the song - in English. To the right of the picture, holding her paper and joyfully singing along with the others, is Julia my Mother in law. For those who don't know, Julia knows no English and definitely couldn't read what was written there. Nevertheless Mum made her take part and taught her enough of the song to fit in.
Mum was one of the few people in the world who spoke Genish, often wrongly mistaken for Hebrish, a personalized mixture of Hebrew and English and self invented idioms that was somehow understood by everyone she met. No one ever thought to correct her.
Three and a half years ago Mum fell over at a family Bar Mitzvah celebration. Six months later the Gina we all learned to love and adore was gone. Three years later she died a second time. For three years it was hard to recognize the mother, sister, wife grandparent, and blessed friend everyone adored so much. When she left us for the second time, the spirit of the real Gina returned and all of us were flooded with memories that had almost disappeared during the dark period of her suffering.
Mum, I know that somewhere up there you are listening to me now, so on behalf of everyone here I want to remind you how much we love you. You were, in our minds still are, a genuinely great Mum.
סבתא:
את עכשיו הרחק מעל כולנו. יושבת לך על איזה ענן לבן. נחה מחיים ארוכים, מאושרים ויפים. מספרת בדיחות לעובר ושב. אני לא אשקר, ג'ין. בכל יום שעובר אני לא מפסיקה להתגעגע. וכל תמונה באלבום, כל זיכרון יפה וכל זכר ממך ממלאים את לבי בחיוך גדול ואהבה.
את תמיד תישארי כאן. בכל נשימה וצעד שלי. שומרת, דואגת ואוהבת.
אני רק רוצה שתדעי שלמרות שאת רחוקה פיזית, את תמיד תישארי אתי, עמוק בלב.
תמיד אזכור, אנצור ואשמור כל זיכרון מתוק ואוהב ממך.
והכי חשוב, סבתא, תמיד אוהַב אותך.
חן
More than an Aunt - Frances
Gina was more than my aunt, she was also my friend, maybe, probably, because she was so much younger than the other aunts (about 15 years younger I think). She kind of took me in hand when I was a young bride, helping me in ways a young bride needs, when my mother for her own reasons was unable to. Now I’m proud to say that Gina, who knew me since I was a baby, accepted me into the sisterhood of women. She took on this “companion, sister, mother, teacher, friend” role in the transition period of my life without being asked and I am grateful now as I was then. Her bubbling sense of humour made everything “fun” and I remember it as an enjoyable time with her. Now when I think of it, I appreciate it all the more since it was the same year she and Nat packed up in London and made aliyah.
When I became a grandmother, Gina became my role model for “grandmothers”. Her influence on me was far greater than that of either of my biological grannies – who were just that: grannies or bubbas. Gina never seemed a “bubba” in that sense. She was about as “hands on” as you could get. I admired her for the way she was showing her grandchildren how to have fun, including teaching them the Jewish heritage and traditions in an enjoyable way. I’m sure her Purims and Pesachs were one of a kind, if the stories I heard afterwards were anything to go by. Lucky are the children who can have such wonderful childhood memories. She was certainly in touch with the child within her – one aspect was her mania for jigsaw puzzles, which fortunately I have too. I loved seeing the puzzles on her dining room table covered by the table cloth when it was time for a meal. There was something very comforting in that.
Reading “Land of Dreams” made me realize what a big hole had appeared in our connection – To think, a whole world that was the Taite family saga was going on down there on the coast while we were continuing our daily lives up here in the hills. I’m sorry we weren’t more in contact – now we are left with the legacy of a woman who touched so many lives with blessing and love.
We have given a donation in dear Gina's memory to the Hadassah organization in Vancouver and asked them to send the donation card to your Dad Nat, for him and the Family. We just wanted to perpetuate Gina's memory.
In 1963 Frank and I were a newly married couple, and of course Gina and Nat had been married for years and had children too. Therefore, we had different lifestyles, and saw each other occasionally at family events.
Gina was very devoted to her husband and family and loved her family very much.
Frank and Barbara Levine