Milky has a Friend in Heaven

My oldest friend is Donna. We met when I was six months old and she was an older woman of one year. We lived next door to each other and that afternoon our mothers decided to bring us together while we ate our lunches in the fresh air of our back yards.

That was the beginning of seventeen years of shared lunches. Yup, every day we either ate at her house or my place. Her mom made exotic Ukrainian dishes…my mom made Campbell’s soup and tuna fish sandwiches. See, by us the fancy meal was supper when my parents came home from the fur store and we could all sit around the table.

Over the years I learned to love pedeheh, and babkah and piroghi. And Donna learned to love stuffed cabbage and latkes and my mom’s famous dill pickles. I went to Midnight Mass and she came to Pessach Seders.

The only reason we stopped was that Donna had the chutzpah to be accepted to U. of T. in Toronto and I was at Wayne State in Detroit.

We missed each other. But over the almost sixty-two years (oy sixty-two years!??!) we’ve managed to stay close and share our joys and sorrows.

The hardest part of moving to Israel was leaving everyone behind. It took me months to get over being homesick until I realized that I could never live there again.

See, after living twelve months in Jerusalem, I went back home for the summer and to get ready for my wedding in December. It was during that trip home I realized that I ached to be back in Jerusalem. Who knew? Twenty-five years I lived in a place and after twelve months I ached to be home. HOME. Jerusalem was home.

And still is.

And I still miss my family and friends from ‘the good old days’.

Donna’s cat Rudi died last week. I wrote her and told her I knew how she felt. My dog, Milky had passed away a few years ago and no one can raise and care for a pet for all those years without feeling sad.

Donna wrote and told me that now Milky has a friend in heaven.

Of course he does!

I wonder if they’re eating babkah or latkehs? Even days cat food and odd days doggie treats.

And why not?

Have a great day…stay safe…and thanks for dropping in.