A loss

I got a phone call this morning letting me know that my cousin Marty had passed away at the age of 80.  Although I hadn't seen him in quite a few years, and he died peacefully in his sleep, the news made me feel sad and nostalgic.

In this photo you see, from left to right, May, Marty's sister Barbie, Marty, me, and in the center my paternal grandmother Sarah, for whom our Sarah is named.  He was a beautiful boy, in character as well as in looks, with an essential sadness of spirit that came from having lost his mother, my father's only sister, at a very early age.  We celebrated his Bar Mitzvah at our house, as we had the room for a crowd and we wanted as many family members as could come to be there.  It's a pretty small family.

Marty became an accountant and then, in later life, a math teacher.  He was supported throughout the years by his wife Carole, who is as bold and confident as he was quiet and shy.  They met and married in Brooklyn more than fifty years ago, then moved to Florida. Their two grown children live nearby.

Marty didn't make much of a ripple in the world, but he was a sweet and kind presence in the lives of those who loved him.