I am participating in 31 Days of Five Minute Free Writes 2018 (all of my submissions can be found here).
Today’s prompt is: TOGETHER
I have been thinking, since the deaths of brothers Cecil and David Rosenthal in Saturday’s shooting in Pittsburgh, of a pair of sisters who went to my hometown church when I was a teenager. They lived together all of their lives, and worship was clearly a primary part of their routine. They always sat toward the front of the synagogue.
I read that Cecil and David made it a practice to greet everyone who walked in the door warmly and enthusiastically. What a comfort that must have been to members of that synagogue, to run into them each time the doors were open and begin their worship knowing they had been acknowledged, greeted, interpersonally embraced.
I tend to do many things by myself. For the lengthy time that I worshiped at St. Francis, I would slip into a back pew. I was still happy to be sharing the service with others, but didn’t necessarily want to be part of the mix.
That all changed when I had children. It changed because a) babies are a people magnet and b) as my children grew older, they were gregarious and pulled me into the social life of the church (whether I wanted to be there or not!).
I (an only child) married someone who is the oldest of six, who tends to be the organizer of groups. There is such a difference between the way we approach gatherings of large groups.
Even though Wayne and I approach that kind of thing differently, neither of us would be the ones to say, let’s get there early and stand there, making sure everyone feels acknowledged and welcomed.
What a loss to the world that Cecil and David will no longer be doing so.
Wife of one, Mom of two, Friend of many. My pronouns are she/her/hers.
I hadn’t heard the story of these brothers. Thanks for sharing!
it has stuck with me and will for quite some time. I wish I could have used a pic of them, but I was concerned about permissions. Hopefully their incredible spirit shone through anyway.