Heritage Florida Jewish News - Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice

When I was six years old, I loved summer storms. As the sky turned dark, the thunder clapped, and the lighting shot across the sky, I would watch from the safety of our living room window. My mother assured me that the noise was just God bowling.

When I was 16, I loved summer storms. By that time, my parents had purchased a cottage on Willsboro Bay in Upstate New York.  From the safety of our porch, I would watch the rain come down in sheets and the waves rock our boat that was moored 200 yards off shore. 

When we moved to Florida, I still loved summer storms. But I soon learned to respect their intensity and duration. Our state has as many as 100 stormy days a year, and our climate means that these storms can happen any month of the year. Florida also has the dubious honor of being the lightning capital of the United States. I have been witness to their fury again and again from the safety of our lanai. And on several occasions, I have had to take shelter quickly as the weather changed too quickly for me to realize what was coming. 

But now, almost five years after our move, I see these storms as a reminder as to how fragile our lives can be.

Last July, on what started out to be a beautiful July day, a group of fellow residents were playing golf on the course in our 55+ community. Very suddenly, the sky darkened as huge black clouds moved in. The golfers, all seasoned Florida residents, knew what to do. They abandoned their game and headed for their golf carts and shelter. 

It was too late. A bolt of lightning struck two of the men. One was thrown to the ground, shaken but okay. The second person was struck full force, and the electricity travelled through his body. By the time he was brought to the hospital, he was brain dead. The doctors kept him on life support long enough for his devastated wife and children to say their goodbyes. 

What are the chances of getting hit by lightning? According to Wikipedia, it is one in 700,000. For my neighbor, the odds were 1:1. 

What happened that fateful morning? Did they give each other a kiss before he headed out the door? And what were their last words to one another. "I love you! See you later." Or was their conversation ordinary and mundane. "We need to pick up some milk" or "The Red Sox are playing the Yankees tonight." Or were their last words those that she regretted? "You promised you would fix that leaky faucet!"

I am 69, and my husband Larry is 71. The specter of death hangs over us a little more heavily than it did 20, or even 10, years ago. Friends die suddenly from heart attacks or slowly from cancer. No matter, their loss is sad. 

Sad, but not tragic. To me,"tragic" is the death of a 31-year-old daughter to leukemia. Tragic is losing a 19-year-old granddaughter to a car accident on a rainy night one block from her home. Tragic is losing a 16-year-old grandson who had been severely disabled since he was a baby. And tragic is losing a husband from - literally - a bolt out of the blue. 

"Biz hundert un tzvantsig!" ("May you live to 120!") is a popular Jewish blessing for a long healthy life. Each loss, whether the number of years were short or long, whether their death was sad or tragic, is my personal reminder to treat each moment with gratitude. "Life is so transient and ephemeral; we will not be here after a breath," said Dr. Debasish Mridha, an American physician and philosopher. "So think better, think deeply, think with kindness, and write it with love so that it may live a little longer." 

Some of us are fortunate enough to live a great deal longer than others. My mother's first cousin, Eli Helfand, passed away in April 2019, three months after his 100th birthday. A World War II veteran and a graduate of Clarkson College, Eli spent almost all his working life in Richfield Springs, New York, where he owned and operated Ruby's Department Store. He had two wonderful marriages, raised four strong, independent children, and got to enjoy his five grandchildren and two great-grandchildren. 

What I remember most about my cousin Eli are our strong family connections. During the Depression, when his parents were struggling to get their Upstate New York store afloat, Eli spent summers and school vacations with my mother and her family in New York City. He introduced my parents and served as best man at their wedding. Eli drove the car that the newlyweds took from the city to Alburgh, Vermont. Mom shared the front seat with Eli's mother Rose while my father sat in the back seat with all the wedding presents, including a floor lamp that Bill had to hold for the eight hour trip. My parents remained close to Eli and his first wife, Florence, who attended my parents' 60th anniversary. When Florence passed away and Eli remarried, he and Marty became an integral part of not only my parents' life but also of mine. We visited them at their homes in Otsego County in New York as well as their retirement home in Englewood, Florida. 

Eli and I share another close connection. His daughter Marsha and I are only weeks apart in age.  We spent time with each other as children as well as our four years as students at University at Albany. We have attended each other's weddings as well as those of our children. 

In August 1962, I spent a week with Marsha and her family at their cottage on Canadarago Lake. We played and replayed Ray Steven's song about Ahab, "the sheik in the golden sand." We baked cookies. We went swimming and boating. And when the storm clouds moved in, we ran back inside. From the porch windows, we watched the lightning flash across the sky and listened to the thunder echo off the surrounding hills. We turned the Ray Stevens record back on and danced around the living room in our bare feet. We were safe in the childhood belief that life would treat us kind and that we would live forever - or at least for 120 years. 

Marilyn Cohen Shapiro, a resident of Kissimmee, Fla., is a regular contributor to the (Capital Region N.Y.) Jewish World and the Orlando Heritage Florida Jewish News. She is the author of two compilations of her stories, "There Goes My Heart" (2016) and "Tikkun Olam" (2018). Both books available in paperback and e-book format on Amazon. Her blog is theregoesmyheart.me.