I don't know if you've heard yet, but we just received a letter from the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra that informed us of Marvin Hamlisch's death yesterday. I am very saddened by this news, to say the least, because we would often go SEE him conduct the symphony here in Pittsburgh. In fact, he was looking forward to the Holiday Pops concert...as he always did every year. Now it won't be the same without him. What a true talent that man was. What an amazing life, and career he had.
He was not looking well, though, for several months. In fact, for about a year. He seemed to keep losing weight, quite rapidly. He claimed he changed his diet, and went vegetarian. I wonder though if there might have been some other medical reason he kept losing so much weight. He passed out during a performance a couple months ago, as well. So until the actual news story comes out, I really don't know how he died. But, he lived a very prosperous, successful life, a happy life, an amazing and super busy life, so I can only imagine that he's relieved to FINALLY get some rest.
Well, anyway, I just wanted to say rest in peace, Marvin, we loved you.
In other news...
WTF is up with the shortage on HELIUM??! Have you heard about THAT?! Yep, the children born NOW will probably live an entire LIFETIME without ever knowing what a BALLOON is all about!! Holy CRAP!! I don't know how the hell that's possible, but wow, that's just plain sad. I love balloons. I was returning some party supplies today and overheard the clerk telling someone on the phone that they no longer rented out helium tanks because of it. Unbelievable. How the hell am I supposed to bring Florence her 91st birthday balloons, or my best friend's daughter's brand new baby boy a balloon, if there ARE NONE TO BE HAD?!! I am truly sad about that, I gotta admit.
Ah well. I got word today from my friend at the Museum in DC (a former coworker) that one of my "peeps," Manya, is very ill. I don't know any details at this point, only that she is very fragile right now. I quickly jumped on the computer, typed up a short letter, included a couple of photographs so that she would recognize me, and sent it to her in tomorrow morning's mail. I hope she'll receive it before she gets worse, or dies. So many of my Survivor friends have died since I left that Museum, and I never got to say goodbye...this time, I wanted to say "get well," and if she IS going to die, I hope that it brings her some comfort to know I am thinking about her and love her.
I can't believe my Manya is soon to leave this world. I really and truly love her so much. This is the most recent photo of the two of us together, at my other coworker's memorial service this past summer. She is a Holocaust Survivor, and a volunteer at the Museum every week.
The way we became such close friends is this......one day while I was working there, I had been tasked to give 3 blind people a tour of the Permanent Exhibition. Now, that's NOT an easy thing to do. It's a lot of reading, and you cannot touch anything.
So, instead, I took them through the children's exhibition, where they could listen to "Daniel" (the main character) tell his story of the Holocaust, while also being able to TOUCH things as they walked through the story---through his house, (you can hear a mother giggling with a boy, in the kitchen making kitchen noises, and touch an eggshell, a bowl, a spoon, etc)., and these three blind people spent a lot of time inside of this exhibition, learning a lot and asking me a lot of questions.
After they finished with that, I took them up to the Testimonial film, of Survivors who are telling their stories. They sat there to listen to these people talk about their lives, and they were very somber and very touched during the film.
When it was over, the female in the group asked if she could use the rest room. I took her downstairs, and as we walked in the door of the ladies' room, Manya was standing there washing her hands. I said to the young blind girl, "I would like to introduce you to someone very special to me, she is a volunteer here at the Museum, but she is also a Holocaust Survivor. Her name is Manya Friedman." When I said this, Manya reached out to shake her hand, and this blind girl suddenly burst into TEARS....
And then she started gushing, about how SORRY she was that Manya had gone through so many horrible things, and how AMAZING and important this museum is, that she learned so much in one day from just this one place compared to all the other museums they had been to all WEEK....on and on and on....she just kept kissing Manya's hand, touching her face, hugging her....she was so overwhelmed. It made ME well up with tears.
Manya just smiled, rubbed her hand, and hugged her, and said this...."My sweet girl, I am a Survivor. Weep for those who did NOT survive, and who CANNOT tell their story, like I can. Pray for them, because I am okay, I made it through a very tough time, and I am fine...please don't cry for me."
From that day forward, Manya and I were best buddies. She even wanted me to date her son at one point! She was always very sweet like that. I miss her terribly. She is like a grandmother to me. We are kindred souls. I just hope she will get better, I hope that this is just a temporary illness. I don't know any details at this point, so I am very worried about her.
My wall of Holocaust books here in my house includes photo frames of my Survivor friends and me together.....it made me feel comforted for awhile.....but now every time I go up and down those stairs, I see it as a wall of dead people. They are really soon going to be completely gone. Every Survivor. I am very blessed, and I consider it an honor and a privilege to have been fortunate enough to know some of them personally, and share close friendships with them over the years. I'll never forget them.
I think sometimes of all the sad things that I am going to endure in my lifetime. It makes me feel like I am drowning. My dog seems to have a cataract in her left eye, at least, the start of one. That makes me feel so sad, she's getting old...she's 10 now...but she's my BABY. I cannot bear the thought of her death. I love that dog more than anything. I still have to endure the loss of my parents. I still have to endure the loss of Pete's mother. My Survivor friends will all be gone within the next 5 years or so. I feel like I am losing everybody I ever loved. I hope my sisters stick around long after I am gone, I just wouldn't know what to do if they died first. And Pete...well, not to mention Pete....ya know? I hope he will live on after me, too. The thought of him leaving me all alone....well, that hurts a lot, as you might imagine. He's really the only man who has ever put up with me longer than a year or two.
I guess I am just feeling sad today. Sorry about that. It's time for me to go to bed now. Tomorrow is another day, and I'll be okay after I get some sleep. Thanks for listening though. You're really good at that, ya know?!! One-way conversations are great sometimes!! It helps just to imagine that you are really there, listening. (even if, in reality, you're not).
Love you lots. xoxo
Bye for now.
Love, Rebecca
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