Uncle Gus

Uncle Gus passed away yesterday. He was one of those people who leaves a hole in the world that cannot be filled. Even though he was my dad's brother, you never met two individuals so unalike on the surface. He was the cool brother, always with a smile, a friend to anyone he met. Yet, underneath it all both brothers shared the same love of family, generosity and kindness.

There is a whole vocabulary that goes with Uncle Gus - "It's a shanda on the neighbors", "balt", or "he'll put a mok on you". When I was a silly 17 year old, fresh out of high school, I figured I would up and go live in Israel. Uncle Gus and Auntie Masha welcomed like another son into their home on Rehov Schwartz. I was just plain lucky to have two sets of parents in my life. These two people mean the world to me. So Uncle Gus, wherever you are (as clichéd as it sounds, he is probably playing poker), I hope you are finally getting a solid night's sleep, you deserve it after not sleeping deeply for 70+ years. All us Ostrins, Agavis, Yitschakis and Yakirs lost one of our best yesterday, we were really blessed to have known him. There is so much more I want to say, but the words just come out flat - I have no way to describe that special twinkle in the eye and the mischievous grin or even that particular cough.

Note: The picture above is not really typical of Uncle Gus, as he is not smiling; but it's the best one we can find. This picture was taken at the memorial ceremony for my dad at the trampiada. Gus is holding is the picture of the Kfar Sava town hall presented to the family by the mayor. You would think they could have at least given us a picture of the trampiada itself (a bloody shunda on the neighbors).