09/22/2026
Their light stays with us. 🕯️
Last Yom Kippur, I was with my parents. Mom took me into the room where she kept photographs of my grandmothers, with a candle burning beside each one. She pointed to them and told me, “Make sure you do too.”
She was passing down our family’s minhag—a custom I remember my grandmother keeping, placing candles in a yellow basin filled with soil.
This year, for the first time, I lit these candles myself, just as Mom asked. Only now, I’m remembering her too.
I shared the story with my sisters because I felt like Mom’s messenger. She made sure to pass this tradition to me, and I want to keep passing it on. Her words became my actions. Her light stays with us.
Through my work with JADE jade.jewishdeatheducation , we make space for these deeply personal conversations—about remembering, about death, and about the preciousness of life.
At our next Death Schmooze, my sister, Liana Alvarez, will share her incredible story of surviving a life-changing accident while on Momentum | Empowering Jewish Mothers Momentum trip (formerly JWRP)—and how Hadassah saved her life.
“Beyond the Edge: What Do Near-Death Experiences Teach Us About Life and Death?”
Join us Wednesday, September 23, at 7 PM Eastern. 🤍 Link is in my bio.
