27 Dec Some Midnight Reflections on the Loss of My Dear Rebbitzen Miriam Libby Weiss Zt”l Zy”a

As I sit on a low chair in my now empty bedroom on the night of my dear wifes levaya I am sharing with you these thoughts. As I am unable to learn my Daf or prepare my Chumash Shiur my thought s naturally turn to the enormity of my loss. So I decided to channel my grief and sadness into something productive by sharing my reflections with you with the hope that we can better ourselves through some of my Rebbitzen’s stellar habits.

Miriam Libby was everyones best friend. She had a way of making you feel that you were the most important person to her. And in a very real way it was true she gave wholeheartedly a slice of herself to countless people. She would tell me, “Moishe, you can’t put all my friends in the same room. They would kill each other”. That’s how disparate her relationships were. But she was able to forge deep bonds with many diverse people. 

She would teach our children don’t wait for people to call you. She exclaimed, “If I did that I’d been waiting by the phone. I don’t stand on ceremony I call them and we remain close friends. She called countless people on erev Shabbos. She let this one know that since she didn’t have a sister she would be her sister. To another she told her your’e like a mother to me and proceeded to send her a mothers day card . To a third she would keep up her unending support that he should stay off drugs. For yet another she would supplement the rent for a single Mom struggling to meet her rent increase. Yet another she would help with shoes for the children on Yom Tov. And she would do this with incredible stealth letting as little people find out about it as possible

She didn’t drive a car. She had no cell phone, not even a flip phone. She didn’t own a wallet and never carried a checkbook.. Yet, she networked incredible accomplishments of chesed. She would hear that someone passed away and they had a great aide-she would immediately try to hook the aide up with another family in need. If someone wasn’t getting shidduchin she would get to them names and numbers of shadchonim. She would find people rides and get surplus foods with secrecy to needy families. If at all possible she would keep herself out of these transactions. She would say I’m just like a passing ship I don’t need to be mentioned.

One of her specialties was adopting an elderly person who she would visit and regularly bring good cheer. Over the years she did this with countless individuals ; going to their home and doing puzzles with them, joking with them, and being a most wonderfull listening ear to them.  She brightened the last years of many a senior citizen

And she did all this without depriving me or her children of her time and her love. She put us first. Her priorities were solid but her ahavas chesed was extraordinary. When she didn’t know some bit of Torah information she would say, “I was absent that day from school”. But we would say that when the Yezer Hora was given not to do chesed that was the day she was absent.

Every Tuesday she would go to Clove Lake Nursing Home and take down all the Jewish Patients and entertain them. She would bring them food from the Pizza Store or Kosher Island and play Bingo or do arts and crafts with them. She infected many other people with her kind spirit and these activities now continue without her. She was a sparkplug of chesed, warmth, happiness, and humor.

These are my first musings there is oodles more. But for the meantime, let’s think of how we can use our talents to better or brighten someone else’s life and may her shining example be a source of aliya to her wonderful neshoma in Gan Eden where she is surely residing.

Please learn and give tzedaka for Miriam Liba Bas Aharon Zt”l Zy”a