Tuesday, August 08, 2006

Last year at this time we watched Judah slip into an ever deeping coma. We prayed, along with all of you. We shared every hope, every sign of progress and then when we realized that there was no recovery, we shared the pain of losing Judah.

This year has been both long and short. It still seems as if Judah is just away at school and will be home soon. It's also real that this won't happen. I look for Judah where ever I go. Sometimes, at his grave site I see a bunny rabbit and remember how he delighted in the rabbits at the City of Hope. Some times I hear him say "back at ya, Ma". and of course I mostly hear and see nothing. But we must remember him in different ways.

One of his special ways was his interest and compassion in people. Judah was just coming into his intellectual inheritance when he became sick. His teachers and mentors at Huntington Memorial lovingly recounted Judah's approach to patients and patient care. Judah's patients were real people to him not just numbers so he started to photograph them and place the photos in their charts. There were other examples of hs compassion that the staff spoke of.

Judah asked that his money be used to do good works. I contacted Dr. Shriner, at Huntington Memorial who runs an AIDs clinic in Tanzania and asked her if there was a special project that we could associate with Judah's name. There will be a Judah White scholarship established for a young man named Ezekiel Noah to go to medical school in Tanzania. Dr. Shriner felt there was something in this young man's commitment to his people, in his approach to medicine that resonated with Judah's "specialness".

So in some way Judah goes on.

2 Comments:

At 9:59 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

The scholarship for Ezekiel Noah sounds like a wonderful way for the spirit of Judah to carry forward. Hopefully, this young man will take all that he will learn and care for his countrymen the way Judah cared for his patients.

Judah is in our thoughts and you are in our prayers.
-Lisa and Gary Lainer

 
At 2:11 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

I can not believe that it has almost been a year since Judah's passing. He was buried on my birthday and in a strange way, it is an honor. My birthday will never have the lightness it used to have, but thats okay. I wish Judah were here celebrating his own birthdays. Life is a gift from G-d and is so precious. Every moment should be lived to it's fullest, the way Judah did.

Nina H.

 

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