Tuesday, August 23, 2011

Remembering Rebecca supporting these charities

Andy has asked me (Richard, again, Andy's brother) to share with this community of Rebecca's family and friends, that these two charities are ones which embody Rebecca's love and care for the world. If it is your wish or custom to make donations at such times, then please consider these charities or others you feel Rebecca would be happy to know are supported.

2 comments:

Bridget Wynne said...

Thank you, Rebecca, for asking us to give in your honor to these two different and important ways of healing.

It was a beautiful funeral -- I don't know that I've ever said that before -- Rebecca, you would have loved the mourners' passionate and determined energy behind those shovels of dirt. These words by Rabbi Rachel Barenblat helped me see how the down-to-earthness of Gan Yarok fits with the down-to-earthness of the Dale Family Farm and especially of the family that created it. love love

Bridget

"The fresh scents of newly-turned earth and sweet unfinished pine ... are ... the scent of a Jewish funeral in summertime, when the earth is warm ... as it is opened to receive. ... like new furrows, like farmland, like something precious enough to cradle in our own bare hands.

... we do just that. ... with our hands, or with the shovels provided, each mourner is invited to engage in the physical task of replacing some of the earth atop the casket. ... the last act of kindness one can perform for someone who has died. The Hebrew word for funeral, levayah, means "accompaniment;" ... tossing these handfuls and shovel-fulls of earth are our way of showing ... that we've accompanied the soul of the person we love as far as we can go.

...They're holy places, cemeteries. We consecrate them with our energy, our grief, our acceptance, our tears. ... For the person who has died, the next chapter -- whatever it may be -- can't be known from here. For those who remain, there is a pile of earth and a shovel, a shoulder to lean on, a memory to burnish to a lasting shine."

Drummond Reed said...

Richard, just wanted to say thank you for helping Andy with this -- this is when family means more than ever.