Bearer of Bad News (of special significance to my NER NCSY buddies)- Now with update!

I get a lot of requests to post various things on my blog, particularly from other bloggers asking me to post links to their sites. Since I only blogroll those sites which I myself read regularly, I generally respond to those requests with a polite but firm "thanks for contacting me, but . . . "

But sometimes, a personal friend makes a request to pass along some news through my site, and I usually agree to those since, hey, what is nepotism for if not to blog each other's news? In the last week or so I've gotten two such requests, and I do mean to post the material, but I haven't gotten around to it.

And now a third request came in that just can't wait, since the news is only "practical" for another two days.

You know that tour bus that tipped into a canyon last week in Chile, killing 12 people? You know how 8 of the dead were members of a Bnai Brith tour?

Well, the news always feels more important when it affects someone you know . . . and I just found out that Ira and Linda Greenfield, z"l, of Stamford, Connecticut, were the parents of Amy (Greenfield) Stark, formerly of Stamford and now of California (I hear possibly LA, but I'm not sure).

Amy was Regional Vice President for Programming of New England NCSY before I took over the job from her my senior year of high school. We weren't best friends, but knew each other pretty well, and I was always fond of her. I still have a photo from my "installation" onto the Regional Board, in which Amy is passing me a soda bottle . . . the ceremony is supposed to involve the outgoing board members passing a flame from their own candles to those held by the incoming board members, but despite being NER region we'd run out of candles! So the soda bottle stood in to symbolize Amy's passing me the torch. ("Ner" means "candle" in Hebrew, and also stands for New England Region.)

How terrible to lose two parents in one day, so suddenly. The funeral was held this morning. May the Greenfield and Stark families be, as we say, "comforted among the mourners of Zion and Jerusalem."

Here is the shiva information:
Shiva will be held in Stamford through Wednesday at the home of Linda's sister. Mincha/Maariv is each night at 6 pm. The address is 59 Auldwood Road, Stamford, Connecticut.

I hope we can share happier news in the future.

***UPDATE***

Amy will be sitting shiva at that Stamford address only until 1 pm today (Monday). After that she'll sit shiva at her home in Los Angeles. I have her phone number in LA, should any other old-time but out-of-touch friends wish to call her.

(Hat tip: Thanks to Judy (nee K.) R. for keeping the NER bunch from the late 80's connected to each other.)