Service geared toward individuals with special needs
For the first time in my life, I cried at synagogue. And the tears weren't because I didn't want to be there.
Nearly six years ago, our son Lucas was diagnosed with a rare chromosomal disorder called chromosome 18p deletion syndrome. The doctor that gave us the bleak diagnosis knew little about his syndrome - she handed my wife and me a page from a medical journal and said, "Lucas will probably never walk or talk, and it's likely that he'll die young."
With that, we walked out of her office and began the incredibly painful process of mourning the loss of the child we thought we had, and re-envisioning a new life with Lucas.
To commemorate his son's first yahrzeit, Rabbi Yossi Bryski arranged a special event in his San Diego community.
He invited Gershon Wachtel, a Toronto-based virtuoso pianist and motivational speaker, to headline the event with a message of hope.
Wachtel's presentation - based on his personal experience of losing his 4-year-old son - used the stage "as a platform to provide hope, healing and faith, the kind that only one who has been there, at rock bottom, can give," according to gershonpiano.com.
The message resonated with Rabbi Bryski and his wife, Shterni, whose son Shlomo died in March 2005 after an unexplained sudden cardiac arrest. He was 5 months old.
Law enforcement officials have widely reported that J.T. Ready's death on May 2 was the result of a domestic violence dispute that resulted in his murdering four people - including a 15-month-old child - before turning his gun on himself. But the fact that the investigation is still open is enough to leave some speculating.
Ready, who had a record of violent tendencies, was discharged from the Marines after two courts-martial and was a self-proclaimed member of the National Socialist Movement.
On stormfront.org, a white supremacist message board where Ready was an active participant, suggested the shooting was a hit put on by a Mexican drug cartel as a result of Ready's leadership role with U.S. Border Guard, a small but heavily armed citizen militia group he founded to patrol the border for those crossing illegally. That organization's website "has been suspended indefinitely out of respect to the friends and family of the deceased," according to usborderguard.com.
