Today would have been my husband’s eightieth birthday. It is a bittersweet day. Yesterday, on Mother’s Day, I visited his gravesite, laid a stone and a red rose on his plaque, and sat down on the damp grass and wished him a happy birthday. I shed a few tears, said the kaddish prayer and walked away full of memory.
When Marv died five years ago, I wrote an obituary that compared him to a crystal:
A quartz crystal never fades and gets richer from the sunlight, but an ice crystal emits its beauty for just a short while, then melts away. So it is too, with Marv Alper. His presence graced us for almost 75 years and now he is glistening above. Remember him with a smile and quick one liner and a hug with someone you love.
We had a good life together and he left me with pleasant memories and a mantra, “You will be okay, Janice.”
Guess what Marv, I am okay!
I love you and I will always love you, and for today, I will put one foot in front of the other and move forward in the rest of my life.
Janice's Jottings 