Friday Notes, March 15, 2024
Dear Friends —
One of the jobs of parents is to build a child’s inner reserves to get through the hard times.
I thought about that six weeks ago, when my 96-year-old father passed away after a life well-lived. I tapped all of the ways in which my parents helped me create a positive sense of self and an orientation to the potential of tomorrow rather than the regrets of yesterday.
I am thinking about that now, not quite a week after my 95-year-old mother, whose health declined precipitously after we lost my dad, came to the end of her life too.
Losing both parents in such a short time is hard indeed; they prepared me for this.
There’s so much to say about the impact that Ilma Levine had on her family and her community, but today I am left without more words. I’ll let her obituary and a remembrance from the Ithaca Sciencenter tell her story.
Now that I’ve lost my two most loyal readers, I’m going to take a break from Friday Notes. I’ll be back by mid-April.
With gratitude,
-Ruth