Thursday, December 25, 2008

The Fifth Candle

Tonight we lit the fifth candle of Hannukah. It has special significance in our family, as its my dad's yotsite (remembrance day). He died four years ago. I have been thinking about him a lot recently. There is so much I could say, but my clumsy words could never do justice to all I feel. I never appreciated how special he was, and I certainly never let him know how much he meant. It was his basic values, his honesty, integrity and that unquenchable thirst for knowledge that I realize now are so uncommon. We were so lucky. I miss him very much.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

pete, its unbelievable to see this video of "show me the way to go home" - this was surely our childhood favorite sung to us by Uncle Ben - what wonderful memories of your dad, left me very tearful...

blackpetero said...

Jo uncovered the video a while back. Its still quite hard for me to watch. It captures him totally. Be well Avs

Anonymous said...

Oh my word, what a tearjerker- quite "vaklempt"
Our father made a huge impression on our entire family and across the miles we all remember him with love and wonderous memories.......
I remember at my son Steven's (BnephewO) barmitzvah Aunty Essie said to Steven pointing to Ben "walk in that man's shoes and you'll never go wrong!" We can only try.

arnieo said...

Nice post Peter. You said it much better than I could have. He really was quite a special person. I have a recording of Dad singing the Friday night Kiddush in his own special way. I would attach if I knew how.

oliviao said...

I showed your mom the post and she asked to see the video again and then just put her head in her hands and said, "look, I was laughing then..." We all miss him...So glad Jo caught him in a completely natural, Ben moment!

Dylan Ohh said...

I remember pointing out that his fly was unzipped right after we stopped recording that.
That song is probably one of the strongest things I remember him by. It used to play in my head 24/7 shortly after. I saw this about a year ago on Gilads laptop and I couldent stop crying...

blackpetero said...

You know bdo that you were one of his most favorite things in the whole world. You were his only granddaughter and he was so proud of you even when you gave him lip. I remember how his snake, Arthur would try beat you when you played Casino. His proudest moment was when you beat him without his having to play easy.