“I remember how we were warned about your father when Ezra was in shidduchim. A nice girl, but a strange family”
BYthe end of the first day of shivah, the stream of people who knew Abba peters out. Rivi expects it, knows that most of their visitors will be her neighbors and acquaintances, but it’s humiliating when her sisters-in-law are underfoot.
Some are kinder than others. Sweet Eliana, the newest one, hangs out with Rivi’s kids, playing dolls with the twins and board games with the boys. Chaya had stopped by for a few minutes and then run out for a carpool. Suri and Atara, though, lurk in the shivah room, chatting with each other or the few visitors and casting a judgmental eye on the mostly empty room.
Rivi? Of course she has no family. She’s always busy with that job of hers. She has no time for family, let alone friends. It floats in the air between them, carried by every low whisper and furtive glance.
Rivi had spent her high school years trying desperately to fit in, then giving up on the fruitless exercise. This is nothing new, though it should be long over in her mid-thirties.
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