"Sit the comedy out, and that done, When the play is at an end, let the Curtain fall down." (Thomas Flatman)

This volume of Pater Noster in Condoland is for the benefit of my "current" family and my descendants in...let's say about 2050. Speaking of families I rue the loss of the relatives I knew while I was growing up. (Why do we use the word "up" there? Obviously, you don't grow "down"). In Long Branch there were Uncle Morris, Aunt Celia, Aunt Jean, Grandpa, Grandma, and Dad . In the Bronx, Aunt Bessie, Uncle Isaac, Aunt Esther, Grandpa Isadore, Grandma Rebecca, Aunt Belle, Uncle Harry, Cousin Rosalie and Cousin Frieda. In Chicago, Uncle Herman, Aunt Fannie, Uncle Irving, Aunt Essie, and Cousin Harold. In Brighton Beach, Mother-in-law Gertie, Father-in-law Morris, and Brother-in-lawHarry. Now they have all gone to that retirement village Condo in Heaven. Fact is, I loved them all. Oh, except for Grandpa Isadore whom I despised because he was a tyrant, and I had to live in his Bronx apartment after my father died in 1933. Now, I apologize if this is all somewhat ghoulish being that they are all dead. But death is not final....if--

In Shakespeare's "Hamlet" the King's jester, Yorick's death grieves Hamlet because as he tells Horatio, "I knew him; he hath borne me on his back a thousand times." Unlike abstract death or death in general, Yorick's death reveals a fact of life. Death which touches us personally is more real than the death of a stranger. Yet, the more real the death is, the more living is the deceased. Death is less than death if it is a remembered one; but it is a double death if it concerns no one at all. Yorick is dead but is reborn in Hamlet's memory. Why? Because "he hath born me on his back..." he says. To do that is an act of love which leaves a memory even when the loved one is gone. In short, unlike a stranger, Yorick's death is personal. Love outlasts death because love is remembered. Yorick's love for Hamlet is his immortality. So long as there is love, death does not make life meaningless.

As of this date, I have family and I do love them all even though they are spread out all over the country so that I don't get to see them very often; but I do think about them and I'm in touch with most through e-mail. If there were no such thing as e-mail, there would be a tragic paucity of communication. I have my own group with my children--now all grown up: My son Bobby and his bride, Sabrina, granddaughter Katrina, son Joel and his bride Barbara, my grandson, Adam, my granddaughter Hannah, my daughter Bonny and my grandson Sean, and my son-in-law, Don Butler, my daughter Robin and her dog, Sophie. That pretty much covers my own group, all of home are faring very well in their lives--except for Sophie who doesn't contribute a helluva lot-- and they are all quite close to each other, which cannot be said for many dysfunctional families. Unfortunately, all of my aunts and uncles are not available at this time, but I do have a slew of cousins; Eddie in Las Vegas, Sandi in Boston, Gary in Chicago, Marty in Chicago, Marty in California, Edith in New Jersey, Allen in Phoenix, Barbara in Arizona, and, of course their husbands, wives, and offspring who are second cousins, and perhaps there are third cousins I don't know about--and I imagine there are many of them whom I've never met and may never meet. The Holzmans, the Auslanders, the Allises, the Banens, and the Rosses may multiply forever. I really don't expect to be around forever, but when I'm gone, so long as I'm remembered and loved, then death is cheated.