When the disease continued to progress, Rav Segal pronounced: “Your avodah now is to be mekabel b’ahavah.” His words became the Wagschal credo
T wenty-eight years ago Mrs. Chavi Wagschal had her first attack of MS on the walk home from her eldest son’s bar mitzvah. From the early days of her illness until her passing last month Mrs. Wagschal courageously reached out to the community infusing others with her hard-won spiritual strength
When the clock struck six in the Wagschal home in Manchester the telephone greeting changed from “good afternoon ” to “good evening.” For years Chavi Wagschal was the queen of an exemplary well-run home. “We were eight children born in thirteen years ” says her oldest daughter Malky Roth “and my mother ran everything like clockwork.” Family dinner was at 6:30 every evening with soup salad and dessert and each child had his own timely bedtime.
It was a house of dignity discipline and high expectations — accompanied by “oceans of love ” as the Wagschal daughters say. Mrs. Wagschal was very involved in her children’s lives and affectionate adding her own personal brachah to her children after her husband bentshed them Friday night.
“My mother used the most dignified and ladylike of language. For example she never called the housekeeper a goyta. She addressed everyone with utmost respect ” says Malky.
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