Senior Moments: Pausing for a security check on the way to my safe place
I’m grateful for the security guards but I never get used to them.
I walk toward the entrance of The Pasadena Jewish Temple and Center, the synagogue where I have worshiped for more than 40 years. The place where my daughter attended Hebrew School and became a Bat Mitzvah. The place where I had my adult Bat Mitzvah. And the place where my late husband stood before the congregation three weeks before his death and thanked them for being his extended family.
The people in that family are my family. This is my safe place.
Inside, I stop at the Tree of Life on the wall and touch the leaves engraved with each of our life events. But before I can go inside a security guard checks the contents of my handbag. He is tall and strong and kind. I am grateful for his protection. I just wish we didn’t need it.
We have gathered on this day to honor PJTC’s outstanding volunteer, Edie Taylor, a 95-year-old wonder woman, who somehow managed to positively touch the life of each congregant. She could recruit a new volunteer in ten minutes flat. I introduced George to Edie not long after we were married and left them to get to know each other. When I returned a short time later, George, who was not yet Jewish or even a member of the Temple, was signed up to volunteer in the office, something he enjoyed, and continued to do for the rest of his life.
Through the years, whenever our phone rang and we could see it was Edie calling, George would say, “Tell her whatever she needs, I’ll do it.”
Inside the social hall, Edie’s friends and family are hugging and laughing and joyful at celebrating together. Seated at a round table between my friends Ricki Lane, who I met when our children were in the same Bar Mitzvah class, and Liz Greene, who I met in my adult Bat Mitzvah class, I feel a sense of peace that makes me never want to leave. Thank you to the guards protecting us while we honored Edie.
I just wish we didn’t need them.
Email patriciabunin@sbcglobal.net. Follow her on X @patriciabunin and patricabunin.com.