Symbols of life and love

My grandma used to say, “I have never seen a hearse with a U-Haul behind it!” That statement was grandma’s way of saying that you can’t take your stuff with you to the afterlife.

However, our possessions can represent what does matter: family, relationships and a time in our lives that is treasured.

Such treasures were recently returned to a survivor of the Nazi death camps. Lovely dishes from Ada van Dam’s family in Amsterdam, where she grew up, were recently returned to her. Ada lost her family to Auschwitz, but she survived.

And now, thanks to the remarkable kindness and effort of Ada’s former neighbor, Ada has dishes from her childhood family, dishes that represent the family life she enjoyed as a child, dishes from her Sabbath table. And she has love from long-ago neighbors. Love that follows us from this life – to the next.

(S-R archives photo)