Mother’s Last Breath and Our Mourning When mother's health worsened and Max – Motl – saw that the situation became complicated, he decided to postpone his voyage to Argentina for some months. Mother's health deteriorated daily and she could hardly sit up in bed. One Thursday at night she sat up in bed, embraced me and with her last strength asked: “If Motl will call for you from Argentina, will go to him?”
I answered: “Yes mother”.
The fact that mother sat up without help scared me and I shouted: “Call a doctor, quick, please somebody call a doctor!!” I embraced and kissed her and pressed her to my heart. Her head rested on my shoulder. I was alone with her.
When the doctor came and entered the room and said: “Why are you holding her, don't you see that she is dead?”
I had not noticed that while she was holding to me with her last strength, she also gave her last sigh. She expired in my arms. Our pain and feeling of helplessness was beyond description, we were left without our main pillar of support. We sat shivah and I organized a minyan for every day. Mother had been a real tzadeike, a saintly woman, everybody who knew her appreciated and loved her. She was taken from us at the age of 48 years, a premature and painful death. I did not wait for the shloshim to end and visited the cemetery every week. We were unable to think of our future. We felt we did not want to continue living in these circumstances!
Editor's Notes: the shloshim: the required 30 days of family mourning