GREAT READS → FAMILY DIARY Issue 923 · August 10, 2022

Close to Home: Chapter 7     

Luckily, I wasn’t expecting when I went to meet Dorothy. But from that point onwards, I’d scan living rooms for possible kehunah-issues

Close to Home: Chapter 7     

 

Nechama Norman with Batsheva Berman

Our homes reflect who we are — our quirks, our style, the things we love, the ways we relax. I love getting to see so many homes up close. Sometimes though, what I find surprises me.

Dorothy Summers had lived in the same home for over 30 years — and now she was about to sell it.  It was a sunny spring day when I came to see her home. Within minutes, she was telling me about Howard, her husband of nearly fifty years.

Howard had had a number of health issues, which had flared up when Covid was sweeping the globe. Howard didn’t die of Covid, but because the medical system was so overtaxed, Dorothy wasn’t allowed to see him, and the man with whom she’d shared half a century of life had died alone.

“I miss him so much,” Dorothy told me tearfully.

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