Thank You, and an Inkling

To all of you who have sent comments and emails of condolence during this difficult period of my life, thank you from the bottom of my heart. I can't put into a few words how much your presence has helped sustain me. Your understanding, your compassion, your sharing of personal stories, are signs of a friendship that can't be belittled as "virtual".

And for those of you are are intrigued by signs and premonitions, here's a true anecdote. One of the funeral guests, my brother's former wife, who has remained close friends with my mother over the years, had a dream about her the night she died. My mother came to visit the dreamer, and after a while, my mother said she had to leave for home. "To the Bronx?" the dreamer asked. "No, to Queens to be with those other people," my mother said.

Queens is where the family cemetery plot is. Otherwise that borough has no significant connection to our lives. My mother never lived there. At the time of the dream, the dreamer knew my mother was dying imminently -- she was a regular visitor to the nursing home -- but she didn't know that the burial would be in Queens. Nor did she know that it would be in a family plot with "those other people" -- my grandparents and uncles.