Sweetening the Bitter Waters

Miriam was nifteres on January 30, 2018 (14 Shevat 5778). The Holmans acknowledge that the name Miriam translates as “bitter waters.” Yet, like Miriam haNeviah, she took bitter waters and made them sweet for everyone around her. “She took what was bitter in her own life, and used it to reach out to others,” her father, Glen (Zelig Shaul) says.

Miriam had been deeply influenced by the family’s first bout of tragedy, over ten years earlier. In 1998, her sister, Nechama Liba, three years older than her, was diagnosed at age five with an extremely rare disease. After struggling for six years, Nechama Liba passed away three days before she turned 11.

“Nechama Liba was an old soul,” recalls Glen, who meets us at the home of his neighbor, Mishpacha writer Chaia Frishman. “Even when she was sick, she’d try to be b’simchah. She smiled just a few moments before she passed away. That was a driving example for Miriam when she became ill.”

“Nechama Liba was like a wise old woman in a child’s body,” Chaia concurs. “She was so mature, even regal, for a child.”