Another amazing month here at Moishe House Boston, including our first annual color war an an affordable housing campaign where our community members hit the streets and helped prevent low income people from losing their homes.
But what is most notable for me is actually a really terrible thing that happened, which is that, Sarah, a member of our community tragically lost her father last weekend. Sarah - a school teacher and just generally sweet and caring person who just graduated from college - called me late on last Saturday night to tell me that her father had passed away earlier that day, and she just needed to talk to someone. She said that our house was her community, and she hoped she could come to us for support.
I am proud that our community functions to support one another in general - through Shabbat and holidays, birthdays and new jobs, even romantic break ups. But we've never had the challenge of needing to be there for someone when they need it most, when they are dealing with real loss and grief. I was immediately moved that Sarah turned to us, but after that, I got kind of overwhelmed. I kept asking myself - is our community strong enough to really be there for someone whose life seems so unfairly turned upside down, who is dealing with this much pain?
As I've learned to do over the past two years, I decided to share my questions with housemembers and key leaders, asking folks what we could do. The response was incredible. We decided to organize 2-3 people a day to call Sarah while she is out of town for the funeral and shiva, to coordinate people to cook for/visit Sarah each day for the two weeks after she gets back, to organize places for her to spend the various days/meals of the high holidays, and to host a memorial service for her father when she is ready. When we posted these ideas to our larger email list, literally dozens of people responded and offered to help, and everything we thought of got covered. In addition to Sarah's friends, who are helping to organize everything and are real mensches, all sorts of people who don't even really know Sarah have also stepped up to the plate, cooking, calling, opening their homes.
Though I never would wish for this situation, this tragedy is teaching all of us the power of community. As I keep being moved by the outpouring of kindness, people repeatedly say to me that they have wanted to in a community where people are there for each other through ups and downs, where they are needed, where in the face of pain there is something they can do. As for Sarah, she said to me on Thursday, "It is weird. Life is just still going. I can't believe my dad is gone, but this whole thing is also making me realize how much love I have in Boston, and how many good people I have to come home to."
Though none of our efforts can fix Sarah's loss, I felt like, if building this community can get such a sweet person though such a hard time, dayeinu, it would have all been worth it.
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