Thank you for this reminder of sorting out the grief surrounding Carolyn's death and how our whole family is working on it, each in his/her own way. She died in June on a beautiful sunny day. Now it is December, cold and snowy. Yet Chanukah is coming soon and we work to gather our menorahs and candles along with other items of remembrance, but we will have one empty chair, Carolyn's chair., Her spirit is still alive as we gather in celebration of Chanukah.
Dear friend, the historical connection of the empty chair symbol moved me a lot. Not least, because my Netzwerk group in Bünde somehow (maybe instinctively?) used to set up an empty chair before the commemoration of the deported citizens of Bünde. Then each individual, before speaking and telling the story of the individual, laid a hand on the back of the empty chair, saying the different names the victim was known by, eg. "Grandma Thea, Frau Theodora Löwenstein, mother of Erwin, wife of Louis" etc.
Thank you for this reminder of sorting out the grief surrounding Carolyn's death and how our whole family is working on it, each in his/her own way. She died in June on a beautiful sunny day. Now it is December, cold and snowy. Yet Chanukah is coming soon and we work to gather our menorahs and candles along with other items of remembrance, but we will have one empty chair, Carolyn's chair., Her spirit is still alive as we gather in celebration of Chanukah.
Dear friend, the historical connection of the empty chair symbol moved me a lot. Not least, because my Netzwerk group in Bünde somehow (maybe instinctively?) used to set up an empty chair before the commemoration of the deported citizens of Bünde. Then each individual, before speaking and telling the story of the individual, laid a hand on the back of the empty chair, saying the different names the victim was known by, eg. "Grandma Thea, Frau Theodora Löwenstein, mother of Erwin, wife of Louis" etc.