DECEMBER 22, 2019

A Hanukkah miracle. 🕎 Me and my grams together. ♥️ At her home in Boston. ✨ Only three days after being rushed to the hospital in San Francisco with internal bleeding and three long months after an accident overseas devastated my body and brain, I never thought I'd be here. My medical records may lead one to believe that I should not be here, yet I am… lighting the candles my non-Jewish grandma had awaiting in the menorah she bought years ago and brings out with pride. Three sleeps before generations of our beloved cousins, aunts and uncles gather right here on Christmas Day, it’s just the two of us, the Schrode girls, me and my 82-year-old best friend, the wicked smart, utterly hilarious and ever-loving mother of my father — holding hands, loving each other and singing bruchas on the first night of the Festival of Lights. I am indeed ever grateful for the powers that have granted us life, kept us alive, sustained us, brought us to this season, enabled us to reach this very occasion — one among many blessings this Hanukkah.
בָּרוּךְ אַתָּה ה', אֱלֹקֵינוּ מֶלֶךְ הָעוֹלָם, שֶׁהֶחֱיָנוּ וְקִיְּמָנוּ וְהִגִּיעָנוּ לַזְּמַן הַזֶּה