Sunday 02 October 2022
This should have been Shani's first term at secondary school, in all likelihood at Immanuel College.
When we took our eldest to uni last month, we should have still had two children at secondary school and there should still have been four of us having dinner the following evening.
But there wasn't.
And that has been really difficult to get through.
There's been a hole in our home for the past five and half years but now it looms larger, it is more apparent, it is even more obvious that Shani is missing from our family.
We held our Shine for Shani Football Marathon on 11 September and we had a lots of kids, both boys and girls, playing football. Perhaps Shani would have had a go, or at least helped with her sister's wonderful charity bake sale alongside the matches.
Instead we reflected on the way that Shani's determination aligned with the effort and drive of all of the wonderful football players, and mentioned her magic smile and her love of life when describing the amazing positive community feeling that we all felt on the day.
Shani is, and always will be, the force and the inspiration behind all of our charity events.
Over the Jewish new year last week, we read the Torah stories of Ishmael and Isaac. Given that Rosh Hashana is supposed to be the anniversary of the creation of the world and mankind, it is strange that we don't read the very first part of the Torah, 'In the beginning ...', the creation story itself. Instead we go for the birth of the sons of Abraham and Sarah, the sons that were so unlikely given Sarah's many barren decades, and that both parents laughed about when told that they would yet bear a child. But have a child they did.
The point being made in reading these stories is that in Judaism it's children that are at the center of our universe, the focus of our love and devotion, the purpose of creation.
It reminds me just how lucky we were to have Shani in our lives for (nearly) six years, how precious that time was, how fragile all of our lives can be, and how important it is to cherish every moment possible with those that you love.
Happy New Year.
