News and shoes

Good news. Everyone loves to hear good news. This past weekend, we heard amazing news. Four hostages rescued. It was tinged with heartbreak, but it is so essential to focus on the good that came from heartbreak. Otherwise, we would all go crazy.

In my own life, I experienced good news as well. Thank God, Husband #1 and I have been blessed with a new Israeli granddaughter. She arrived on 6/7, weighing 6.6 at 2:34 a.m. Like with Danish, her sister, she arrived on one day in the U.S. and the next day in Israel. And because they named her on Shabbos, we didn’t find out the name until much later in the day. And we couldn’t find out why they named her what they did until much later the next day.

For those of us who have children living in Israel, or any other country for that matter, we wish them only good health and happiness in their choices. For those of us who stay in this country, it is bittersweet. “When will you be moving?” “When are they coming back?” “When are you going to visit?” All well-intentioned questions that all become an exercise in restraint from not screaming back frustrated replies about the cost of tickets, the fact that Husband #1 will be working for the next thousand years, that our kids made aliyah — but it is all good. All of our children should just be healthy, safe, and happy. Their lives should only be filled with joy and simcha. That is all we want for our children. Everything else is a bonus.

I still have not come up with a “name” for Strudel’s sister. But Danish’s sister really should be called Cheesecake due to this past holiday. If I were to name Strudel’s sister, it would most likely be Kichel, because she is named after my grandmother, the one who gave me my first kichel at a kiddish at the Fifth Avenue Synagogue about 50 years ago. Of course, all these names might be outrageously annoying to many of you, so we will just stick with Strudel and Danish and take it from there.

On to the next topic. Shoes.

There are some women, well, many many women, who love to wear stunning high heels. Do they really love wearing them? They are beautiful, but there is no way they are comfortable. If they are not comfortable, why do so many people wear them? Over the years, I have learned to fully embrace the indisputable fact that I will be the one wearing the ugliest shoes at a simcha (possibly also the ugliest outfit, but that is a lot more subjective). I just believe in comfort. Life is too short not to be as comfortable as you can in any given situation.

I have one pair of “fancy” shoes. They are patent leather wedge situations. Before my dad died, not knowing that would happen when it did, I had these fancy shoes fixed up because I thought I would be wearing them 11 times that summer.

I brought them into Manor Shoes on Cedar Lane. I was greeted by Leo, one of the nicest and friendliest humans I have ever come across. He did such an incredible job making my very old fancy shoes look new. Since then, I have brought Husband #1’s shoes in to be overhauled, Son #3’s shoes to be snazzed up — you get the picture.

I told him that I wished I had more shoes to bring him because he does such a great job, but my collection of Skechers don’t warrant being fixed. Leo also fixes other leather items, but I no longer carry pocketbooks because it is much easier to lose my phone, which holds all my credit cards and drivers license…

Having all boys served me well in the not-liking-shoes department. They never cared what shoes I wore, and for the first many years of their lives, they only had two pairs of shoes. Sneakers and Shabbos shoes. What could be easier than that?

And now, with so much gratitude, I have four granddaughters. That’s a lot of shoes….

Wishing all of you only good news always.

Banji Ganchrow of Teaneck has no plans to make aliyah and hopes to meet Danish’s sister very soon.