Devora Korn's hesped (eulogy)

Thank you so much for coming to help us honor the memory of our father. As you already heard, my father was a very special person. There is a lot I have learned from his love of Hashem, Torah and Mitzvos, friends and family.

My father was passionate about Judaism, having become religious in his early 20s. He always loved to share inspirational stories, and often got choked up when retelling the emotional parts.

When I had a weak moment recently, I explained to my father that I didn’t think it was fair that we found out so late in his disease. And my father encouraged me to work on my emunah, and he said, “Was it fair that I have been married to a wonderful woman for over 40 years? Is it fair that I have my children and grandchildren?” He reminded me to  focus on all the brachos in my life. Many of you know, that if anyone ever spoke gossip around him, he would say, not so  subtly, “ No Lashon Hara, no lamed hay.” Recently we started talking about Emunah, and I thought that I would tell you about the CDs that we had been listening to. The same Rav can be found on  LearnTorah.com about strengthening one’s Emunah and Bitachon. It has helped me and I thought that my father was giving me a little mussar to work on my emunah, so I don’t know if anyone wants to join me in that pursuit.

In terms of friends and community, I am so grateful to everyone in this community who has been there for my parents.

There was the community-wide Tehillim at Young Israel with name-change, and I wanted to name the many people who had been there for my parents but I was scared that I would leave names out, but just know that it means so much to us. I also know how much everyone’s time and advice has helped my parents, and they received better medical care because many of our friends who are doctors in the community came offered help where there were gaps in the care. And even the Friday night dinners where people were bringing the dinner and joining my parents for the meals.

And I knew how much the friends meant to him because I was here just a few weeks ago, and I  thought that it was very exciting that I was in from New Jersey, and my father said to me, “I’m going to frozen yogurt with the Perls. You can come.”

And I know how much my siblings meant to my parents. Even recently, two weeks ago, when he was in the hospital, I was still texting him medical questions and he was still giving me answers. And he was proud of us in how we were each continuing in our Yiddishkeit, but we each charted our own paths in Avodas Hashem. And he and my mother were always there for us, in good times and bad.

Today is actually my son’s birthday, a son that I lost 10 years ago. And my parents immediately came out to help us. And I just got nechama that my father is going to be reunited with some of our loved ones.