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CANDLELIGHTING

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THE JEWISH VIEW

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HOLIDAYS

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JUDAISM 101

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{weblog_name} - We’ve Lost A Gem
Comments (1)

I want to write that I feel a particular sadness, a deep loss by the passing of Dina Blaustein. She was my wife’s tap dance teacher, drumming instructor, a pleasant staffer of the Northwest Citizens Patrol, but she was just so much more. There were so many instances of chesed that Dina did behind the scenes that perhaps only HaShem was aware of. I always feel that when someone as great as Dina is taken from us, it is because HaShem must have some extremely important task for her neshama for the good of the Jewish people. Whenever she called me, she’d say, “Dina B here.” She’d call my home and always ask to speak to my “beautiful wife.” I cannot possibly in this writing capture the depth of this special lady, who gave and gave and gave some… read more

it’s after midnight, I called my beloved friend Dina to ask her a question, the line was disconnected ,icalled nwcp knowing she worked there, a warm and sweet voice answers, I say Dina Blaustein?......The woman says, oh no I forgot to turn the phones over, and I said I was trying to reach my friend Dina Blaustein, she says didn’t you here?.....I said no what?....She says Dina passed away, I could not even ingest the words, my heart fell into my stomach and I cired out in shock, I managed to ask when? she said shloshim was yesterday..  She kept apologizing for having to tell me this way, I kept filling with tears and questions and disbelief.    I said allthe emails were so positive She had me feeling she was going to be ok. ” That was Dina,” the woman said, “I didnt know her very well but she was very private and didnt want people to know.  Thats what she told everyone… ”  I thankd her and apologized for disturbing her, she apologized again for having to tell me such news this way.  I was grateful to know and so pained at he same moment. How could I not have known,,, How does someone go ahead and die a whole month ago that meant so much to me and I didnt know.  How could I have missed her funeral,  The shiva, was there a shiva, who says Kaddish So many questions swimming through my sea of tears and my aching heart.  My husband found your blog Phil and I thank him you and G-d youre out there   in the middle of the night.  It is too late to call her friends in baltimore and i coulnt sleep with myself.    Dina had such a profound affect on my life.  I lived in her apt with her, I learned with her,I laughed with her I cried with her, I danced with her, I sang with her.  She taght me so many of my firsts in yiddishkeit.. She gave me wonderful friends, taught me how to sing
taught me how to live.  As I type more, I relize that so many of the things I do in my life are because of Dina, and what better of a way to honor someone so great as she than by emulating her qualities and using the gifts she gave. 

So as I sit here with my tea getting cold, my heart fills with warmth and my eyes once again with tears as I relaize she lives on in me forever.  So for now I have to accept that I coulnt be at her funeral because I didnt know about it and I couln’t be with her before she died because I didn’t know she was dying and I couldnt talk to her because she wasnt returning calls as quickly and the emails were less.  and I have to accept that I didnt think anything of it..  Too often so much time went by before we communicated.  When we did we just picked up where we left off.. I have to accpet that our lives took such differnt paths and keeping in touch regularly for me was not so esay.  But as I sit here tonight I wonder easy maybe not, but simple yes.  How precious are the few in our lives that touch us so deeply and move us to change and growth.  Shoulnt that be the priority in my life?  To put forth the effort to stay connected regularly to the people who matter most????? and if not now which number will I call months from now that too, will be disconnected??////  Thank you Phil for writing about Dina and appreciating who she really was.  I celebrate Dina and her life.