I think that my favorite store in Teaneck is the Dollar Tree. Many of you do not know one of my many titles is Candy Bubbie and that store helps me to keep my supplies going. There are tons of candies with hashgacha and plenty of other “shmuntzes” to fill my cupboards for the occasions when our great-grandchildren visit. By the way, it is no secret that my own grandchildren love to come over and sneak their candy favorites as well. They recall that when visiting Montreal each morning their Zaidie would leave each of them a candy plate on our kitchen table. They would run out of their beds, come to the kitchen and devour their feasts just in time for their mothers to awaken and suggest a healthy breakfast, being none the wiser.
This week my visit to the Dollar Tree was for a different reason. I needed to fill up on “shtick” for our grandson Doniel Eisenberg’s wedding on Thursday evening. Somehow the task of being the Shtick Lady is a title that I have also acquired. My married granddaughters told me that now it is the kallah’s friends who bring the shtick! However, what about the things that are relevant to the chattan? In our family we are majorly boy-heavy, so that has always been my job. I purchased every crazy hat they had, lots of horns, and anything that I thought would be ridiculous enough to fete the chattan and kallah.
This wedding for our Eisenberg children from Rochester is their youngest son marrying. They are finishing a chapter—it’s a mezinka! So rumor has it that a mezinka needs to have crowns on the parents’ heads. Since I have no idea who or what the florist is in Baltimore, the festive season has made it very easy for me to purchase two white floral wreaths for them to crown their heads with. Yup, $1.25 each! Will the cost of each detract from the simcha? I absolutely know that it will not.
Our beloved Doniel, who is marrying Channah Roll, is a caring and sensitive young man. I will not spend time reminding everyone that the kallah’s father was a ben bayit in our home in Montreal and revered my beloved Mordechai as his rebbe. Again, this shidduch is a match made from heaven. Having all of his siblings present from near and far, together with 26 of their offspring and his aunts, uncles and cousins, always warms my heart as I see the closeness of our family unit.
Yes, we did accomplish something very special. Granted it is difficult for these young couples to get it all together to arrive in Baltimore on a Thursday in time for a wedding. Just dressing each of their children is a major job. Yet, leave it to the sisters-in-law to work it all out. This one went to this gemach and got the little girls dresses to match, and this went to this gemach to get “brooms” for the mezinka, and another one went somewhere else to look for shoes for another. Actually, I have no idea where the brooms came from or even the mezinka. We Jews seem to be great at picking up new “must-haves” for our lives.
One thing I can assure you is that we will all dance and be misameach this beautiful couple as we did for their siblings. They will be starting off their lives in Yerushalayim (shh, where I hope it continues) and will each day learn the beauty of getting to know another with love and respect. What an opportunity to have an entire lifetime ahead to reach the stars. I remember those moments well—the challenges, hardships and overwhelming sense of joy having a partner who was meant for me, with the knowledge that we could face anything together. I wish them all of the joy that I was fortunate enough to share with my beloved Mordechai.
Sheva brachot mean a week of celebration of this great match, and after seven sometimes-tiring yet joyful days real life begins. Ironically, just the next night after the sheva brachot are completed is the 14th of Cheshvan; the third yahrzeit of my beloved Mordechai. At another time I will share my feelings about this, but for now I can suffice by saying that again: The shidduch that he arranged so many years ago was now culminated by a chassana that I am sure he participated in.
Mazel tov Doniel and Channah. We all love you so much, and you can still call me the Candy Bubbie!
Nina Glick can be reached at Jewishlinknj.com.
