An update

My mother's health, already shaky, took a precipitous and irreversible turn for the worse this week. If my flight to Israel had not been canceled, I would have been there these past few days, not here. The cancellation of that flight, so disappointing at the time, was a blessing in disguise, one of the biggest blessings of my life.

This is a very hard time, but my mother is surrounded by people who love her -- my sister and me, my aunt, my grandmother. And countless friends. No one has more friends than my ebullient and warm-hearted mother. She will go home later today. I probably won't post again until it is through.